Thinking about dropping out.
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Unless you really, really know what you want to do after you drop out and the passion and dedication to pursue it, and all school is doing is wasting your time and preventing you from pursuing that goal, and possibly at least a way to make some money, I suggest staying in school.
I understand where you are coming from, I really hate school as well, to the point where I really do think it wastes my time. I have just never functioned well in a school environment, I'm pretty sure most people don't, they generally aren't places that cater to a wide variety of learning types, personalities, ect. Some just push themselves through it out of fear of not having a good future, or because they want to live up to their parent's expectations, or their expectations. Some people fool themselves into thinking that school is the epitome of achievement, that if you don't perform well in school, or don't like it, you aren't intelligent, or you can't be successful. Some people are actually comfortable with school.
Some people, like yourself, just can't put themselves through it and give up, because school really does suck at what it is apparently set out to do: Teach and nurture talents. When I was young and in elementary school, I was ostracized for being eccentric and for straying away from the inflexible structure of school. I didn't learn the way I apparently supposed to, I didn't want to do assignments the way I was apparently supposed to, I instead wanted to try my own ideas and approaches. But curiosity and creativity, to them, just got in the way of plowing through the set curriculum as efficiently as possible.
The problem is that school, in the way that it's designed, just doesn't work for everybody, but our society puts so much importance on it to the point where it's needed merely for survival and practicality.
If I wasn't in school, I would have more time to learn about and pursue what I want to do in life. But alas, I lack both the dedication, bravery, and probably the talent to do that so I can overcome the many obstacles society throws at people without a formal education. So here I am in school. It's not completely terrible though, I'm going through my last year. After I graduate I'll take some time to clear my head and really figure out what I want to do.
I understand where you are coming from, I really hate school as well, to the point where I really do think it wastes my time. I have just never functioned well in a school environment, I'm pretty sure most people don't, they generally aren't places that cater to a wide variety of learning types, personalities, ect. Some just push themselves through it out of fear of not having a good future, or because they want to live up to their parent's expectations, or their expectations. Some people fool themselves into thinking that school is the epitome of achievement, that if you don't perform well in school, or don't like it, you aren't intelligent, or you can't be successful. Some people are actually comfortable with school.
Some people, like yourself, just can't put themselves through it and give up, because school really does suck at what it is apparently set out to do: Teach and nurture talents. When I was young and in elementary school, I was ostracized for being eccentric and for straying away from the inflexible structure of school. I didn't learn the way I apparently supposed to, I didn't want to do assignments the way I was apparently supposed to, I instead wanted to try my own ideas and approaches. But curiosity and creativity, to them, just got in the way of plowing through the set curriculum as efficiently as possible.
The problem is that school, in the way that it's designed, just doesn't work for everybody, but our society puts so much importance on it to the point where it's needed merely for survival and practicality.
If I wasn't in school, I would have more time to learn about and pursue what I want to do in life. But alas, I lack both the dedication, bravery, and probably the talent to do that so I can overcome the many obstacles society throws at people without a formal education. So here I am in school. It's not completely terrible though, I'm going through my last year. After I graduate I'll take some time to clear my head and really figure out what I want to do.
If you're 15 then you're not even in high school yet (I may be wrong, I'm in Canada)cimil said:
Grades 10, 11, and 12 are the grades that really matter since failing is a real possibility. You can't really "fail" middle school here in Canada but high school is hard as hell.
When you reach high school you have more options to choose from (I assume you get to choose fun stuff like construction and art but you're forced to take the core classes). In high school you may not even want to do science so you don't have to, though its more complicated than that.
tl;dr, wait until you're in the final years of school and make the decision then.
I thought about dropping out when I was a Junior, then I realized that means I had just effectively wasted the last 10 years of my life, and with two left it made sense to finish it out. Plus it's generally hard to find a half-way decent job, for the most part you'll be relegated to washing dishes and flipping burgers. So unless you've got an awesome set of marketable skills and you've got employers chomping at the bit, I'd tough out the rest of high-school at least.
That sounds EXACTLY like me. But trust me, you don't want to drop out of high school. Even getting an F in every subject is worth more to an employer's eyes than a drop out. It's hard to get to work at McDonald's with bad grades, imagine how hard it would be to get a job you can live off of. So yeah, stick it out through high school, then do what you want.cimil said:
Oh, and a little off topic; don't let anyone push you into college if you don't think you're ready for it. College is great and you'll probably need it at some point, but wasting money on it when you know you won't do well is a bad idea. I know this from experience.
I would also tell the OP that it is easier when you get to college.MystryMeet said:
I'm a senior about to get my B.S. in English, and this final semester, I only have 4 classes. And in six weeks I have only had one small project, 3 papers, and four poems to write. That is about 17 pages of work. Oh, and my schedule gives me a four day weekend.
You dont REALLY need the high school education. Just drop out, get your GED, go to college. Or get a job. Alot of colleges actually accept GED's. Its nice to have high school, but the resumes ask for high school or equivalent. Most of the bosses dont even check the stuff. My dad never finished, makes 15 an hour. Might not be a whole lot, but its enough to keep a family of seven afloat. Its your life man, live it the way you want to.
Welcome to the world new Blue Collar Worker! Someday you might reach the lofty career heights of the guy who presses sheet metal or even a games tester. Sadly you need an education for both of those jobs, so perhaps you could be the creepy guy handing out towels in fancy resturants' toilets, or even be a spooge mopper @ the local "adult arcade". The possibilities are limitless until your folks kick your ass out. Good luck! 
Do what you can to finish. Unless there's absolutely no way you can make it through, do not drop out. I felt pretty much the same around that age, but I stuck through it. Just find something to keep you sane.
High school isn't fun but in the long run you really do need it. A GED isn't the same as a high school diploma, and quitting is not a good attitude to go forward with. You can still get a decent job, but realistically if you want a good job, you need that high school diploma.
And it does get better. I had fun during my high school time, and i'm glad I made it through.
And it does get better. I had fun during my high school time, and i'm glad I made it through.
I would say he had better have connections. Because I have a 2 year degree, a few months away from a 4 year degree, and I couldn't even get hired at Wal-Mart, and I applied at 4 of them. It is better to wait out this economy in school, living on government loan money. Heck, I'll soon be getting over 3000 dollars of money just to live off of for this last semester, and I only need 70 dollars a month for food.Cain_Zeros said:
I say take all the money you can from the stupid government, get a degree and a good job and spend the next 30-40 years paying back to them slowly, while you use the extra to have a life.
Dropping out works fine if your smart enough to finish the GED, which..a 5th grader could do that test. But you can't really do it until your 18, so you have to go through your first 3 years anyways. And even if you didn't then you would just have to study for the test on your own. As for the alternative of not finishing school or taking the GED..no.
cimil said:
Dropping out of school would be the biggest mistake you've ever made. Everyone in the world would judge you for not making it through high-school and they'd probably be right to. Any problems you might have now will be magnified once you leave. Nobody will ever hire a guy who dropped out of highschool because he was TOO lazy to apply himself to graduate. If I were in your position (and I was at one point, minus cell phones) I would get rid of my cell phone so that I could concentrate on whatever is being taught. If your schooling doesn't challenge you, just buck up for the next 3 years and go to a post secondary college/university/trade school to get yourself an interesting job that you will love to do for the rest of your life. In the event that you drop out you'll likely be a bitter person that people will probably avoid and will hate your job which will probably scrubbing out toilets or something that doesn't require a brain.
I didn't have drive when I was younger, and I had terrible marks in high school. I found work at an internet realty company for 3 years before I went back to university. I'm now a year and a half away from graduating and happier than I've ever been in my life.
Word up.
If you're going to get a GED or other equivalency and your parents are OK with it I don't see why not. If you're not going to put any effort into high school, then even if you do graduate you're going to have terrible grades. You'll have a high school diploma if you graduate, but it'll have "underachiever" stamped on it.
I dropped out of high school, got a GED and am currently in my junior year of my bachelor's. If I had dropped out sooner I could've started college sooner.
These threads always come with really ridiculous ideas that all people who drop out have terrible prospects or no access to higher education. If you take the SATS/ACTs and have a GED, you can easily get into a community college, and most public universities have programs for turning 2-year degrees into 4-year degrees.
I dropped out of high school, got a GED and am currently in my junior year of my bachelor's. If I had dropped out sooner I could've started college sooner.
These threads always come with really ridiculous ideas that all people who drop out have terrible prospects or no access to higher education. If you take the SATS/ACTs and have a GED, you can easily get into a community college, and most public universities have programs for turning 2-year degrees into 4-year degrees.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I had to apply at the Walmart here about three times before I got hired. I ended up hating it, and quitting after a little over a year to focus on college (the joys of having a college in your home town so you can live at home), but that's irrelevant.Sonic Doctor said:
Dropping out was quite simply the best choice I have ever made in my life.
There is a subtle difference between education and learning.
Education is a process in which many other factors come into play, the main one being sociological manipulation and funneling.
You are taught to think and act in certain ways from a very, very young age and my ever-inquisitive mind always questioned these things as they were happening. The majority did not.
If I was told to go out of the classroom, I would stand there in the middle of the class and ask "Why?" Not because I wanted to cause further trouble or partake in rabble rousing and a game of mental to-and-fro with someone who is supposedly my superior (that someone being the teacher,) my 7 year old self could not comprehend such concepts, all I had was a desire to understand "Why?"
What I wanted, was to learn. What I have spent every minute of my time doing since I dropped out is learning.
If someone wants to learn, they will learn. I wanted to learn, and thus I have learnt, and I shall always continue to do so.
I have learnt about myself, about others, about society at large, about music, about art, film, culture, about my own spirituality, about what I personally desire from my life, how to get what I desire from life, the way society is structured... Simply too many things that have been far too essential that never got taught to me in school or colleege, because the things that I have thought about and studied and learnt have all bestowed with me the ability to see that we are all trapped in invisible cages until we find the ability to see them, and once we see them, they can no longer hold us.
However, having said all of this. I did first finish school, then go to College and make an attempt to finish it, twice infact.
I first did a Music BTEC, which I dropped out of due to family problems (and many personal ones, mainly brought on by being in College in the first place.)
Then everything went supposedly "to shit," I hit bottom about 9 months later, having returned to College to have a crack at A Levels (namely Psychology, Sociology and English Literature. I do not regret this in the slightest as I did legitimately get TAUGHT quite a lot in Sociology and English Literature, although Psychology held nothing for me aside from being mildly sickened by the way its entire point is to lump people into nice easy categorizations that do very little to encompass context, the journey one is on, etc. Sociology and English Literature taught me much about others and myself that were extremely crucial.)
I then dropped out this March. People came out of the woodwork to tell me I was throwing my life away, throwing my opportunities away, etc.
I spent months getting ludicrously wrapped up in all of this to the point where I once again hit bottom during this summer.
Dropping out of college was a symbolic death, swiftly followed by a symbolic rebirth, so it seemed fitting to make a conscious effort to shed everything that once represented me and to start anew.
At the end of the summer, around August, I went on holiday to Wales and spent a week being content in the mere fact that I exist. Nothing else matters aside from this, and since then I have been the calm little center, making everyone else uncomfortable for being so damn zen.
This realisation that nothing matters aside from contentment in one's existence has lead me to no longer see any point in currency, in morality, in society, or in much at all, and while that may sound very defeatist and negative, it is infact the exact opposite, it is complete enlightenment.
I am shed of earthly desires aside from following my intuition, but that is not a desire, that is just what feels right, desires in fact long since ceased to exist for me.
Sorry for the mega-post but I feel it was all needed in explaining just WHY dropping out was the best choice I ever made.
We get funelled down a certain path before we even get the chance to consciously question whether this is what we want and that part of me that questions everything didn't get corrupted at a young age.
QUESTION EVERYTHING and if what feels right to you is to drop out and pursue a different path, then I am going to be the one person that will advise you, nay, IMPLORE you to FOLLOW this and never, ever look back. Do not let others tell you otherwise, the sheer fact that you are asking demonstrates a strong unwillingness to not follow your most base, simplistic intuition and do what your soul is telling you to do.
There is a subtle difference between education and learning.
Education is a process in which many other factors come into play, the main one being sociological manipulation and funneling.
You are taught to think and act in certain ways from a very, very young age and my ever-inquisitive mind always questioned these things as they were happening. The majority did not.
If I was told to go out of the classroom, I would stand there in the middle of the class and ask "Why?" Not because I wanted to cause further trouble or partake in rabble rousing and a game of mental to-and-fro with someone who is supposedly my superior (that someone being the teacher,) my 7 year old self could not comprehend such concepts, all I had was a desire to understand "Why?"
What I wanted, was to learn. What I have spent every minute of my time doing since I dropped out is learning.
If someone wants to learn, they will learn. I wanted to learn, and thus I have learnt, and I shall always continue to do so.
I have learnt about myself, about others, about society at large, about music, about art, film, culture, about my own spirituality, about what I personally desire from my life, how to get what I desire from life, the way society is structured... Simply too many things that have been far too essential that never got taught to me in school or colleege, because the things that I have thought about and studied and learnt have all bestowed with me the ability to see that we are all trapped in invisible cages until we find the ability to see them, and once we see them, they can no longer hold us.
However, having said all of this. I did first finish school, then go to College and make an attempt to finish it, twice infact.
I first did a Music BTEC, which I dropped out of due to family problems (and many personal ones, mainly brought on by being in College in the first place.)
Then everything went supposedly "to shit," I hit bottom about 9 months later, having returned to College to have a crack at A Levels (namely Psychology, Sociology and English Literature. I do not regret this in the slightest as I did legitimately get TAUGHT quite a lot in Sociology and English Literature, although Psychology held nothing for me aside from being mildly sickened by the way its entire point is to lump people into nice easy categorizations that do very little to encompass context, the journey one is on, etc. Sociology and English Literature taught me much about others and myself that were extremely crucial.)
I then dropped out this March. People came out of the woodwork to tell me I was throwing my life away, throwing my opportunities away, etc.
I spent months getting ludicrously wrapped up in all of this to the point where I once again hit bottom during this summer.
Dropping out of college was a symbolic death, swiftly followed by a symbolic rebirth, so it seemed fitting to make a conscious effort to shed everything that once represented me and to start anew.
At the end of the summer, around August, I went on holiday to Wales and spent a week being content in the mere fact that I exist. Nothing else matters aside from this, and since then I have been the calm little center, making everyone else uncomfortable for being so damn zen.
This realisation that nothing matters aside from contentment in one's existence has lead me to no longer see any point in currency, in morality, in society, or in much at all, and while that may sound very defeatist and negative, it is infact the exact opposite, it is complete enlightenment.
I am shed of earthly desires aside from following my intuition, but that is not a desire, that is just what feels right, desires in fact long since ceased to exist for me.
Sorry for the mega-post but I feel it was all needed in explaining just WHY dropping out was the best choice I ever made.
We get funelled down a certain path before we even get the chance to consciously question whether this is what we want and that part of me that questions everything didn't get corrupted at a young age.
QUESTION EVERYTHING and if what feels right to you is to drop out and pursue a different path, then I am going to be the one person that will advise you, nay, IMPLORE you to FOLLOW this and never, ever look back. Do not let others tell you otherwise, the sheer fact that you are asking demonstrates a strong unwillingness to not follow your most base, simplistic intuition and do what your soul is telling you to do.
Finish high-school unless you have a high amount of disposable income. College can be helpful but in most cases you wont get a job in the field you studied, but it still looks good because they know that you put up with at least 4 years of horse shit and circle jerking and somehow came out with a notarized diploma. It means you worked hard and you sifted through the shit to find the speck of gold at the end.