So I know im on the younger side of people who use this site but I genuinely see very little point in school. It teaches me nothing for career paths im interested in, stresses me out. Makes my mom go insane at me. Im in 8th grade so I know theres not as many options for classes to teach about career stuff in. But im constantly being told that I need to perform well in classes I dont have a sliver of motivation for to even be eligable for the ones that I will care about and value. Like what is that!
Apr 16 2021 5:36PM
Apr 16 2021 5:38PM
Butterytips69What careers are you interested in? Also your interests can change a lot from 8th grade to entering the workforce. Not saying you have to go to college but definetly stick around for that high school diploma it'll be worth it no matter what you do.
Graphic design, pretty much anything to do with wood working especially the construction of skis. Also cooking is something im interested in. Tons of wildlife preservation and trail building stuff i enjoy as well
Apr 16 2021 5:43PM
Apr 16 2021 5:43PM
Apr 16 2021 5:44PM
Thats exactly what im worried im gonna end up thinking. I know it doesnt matter as much now but I dont wanna spend all my time stressing over school
Mr.LamasCosmosDepends what you are interested in. I spent all my years in school and now I don't need any of those quals.Wish I new back then what I know now, would not have gone to school.
Apr 16 2021 5:46PM
Butterytips69Cooking you could work at a local restaurant for some xp and cash. If you know any woodworkers/trailbuilders see if you can stop by a shop or jobsite to see what a day in the life is like. Also ask them about their education background
My dads actually a woodworker and I know he did not go to college for it. Makes a decent amount of money from it and really enjoys. Really want to look into what mtb trail builders do and what they get paid if its a thing the city wants
Apr 16 2021 5:49PM
Piss_BoyThats exactly what im worried im gonna end up thinking. I know it doesnt matter as much now but I dont wanna spend all my time stressing over school
School is a meme. I have had this theory for a while that for certain motivated people you can achieve superior learning results than that of schools/universities by simply studying yourself. These institutions are slow and inefficient. Put simply they can't keep up and are subject to all sorts of influences and bias which distorts knowledge.
Apr 16 2021 5:52PM
Mr.LamasCosmosSchool is a meme. I have had this theory for a while that for certain motivated people you can achieve superior learning results than that of schools/universities by simply studying yourself. These institutions are slow and inefficient. Put simply they can't keep up and are subject to all sorts of influences and bias which distorts knowledge.
I also have AD and when I cant focus on something, the teachers dont exactly make it easy to get caught back up
Apr 16 2021 5:57PM
CaseyIf you don’t at least get through highschool you are going to be stuck pumping gas for a living. Everyone thinks they don’t need money to be happy- but you need ENOUGH money or you will be constantly miserable.
While i apreciate this, im not saying I want to drop out of school at all. I meant to ask if it was worth it pumping ALL of my energy into school like it seems everbody wants me to
Apr 16 2021 5:59PM
Apr 16 2021 5:59PM
Apr 16 2021 6:06PM
Apr 16 2021 6:16PM
It really depends on what you want to do after school. In 8th grade your grades won’t matter at all when applying for college and stuff, but I would say in high school at a minimum try for a 3.5 gpa. The worst thing to happen would be during junior or senior year to become super interested in something that needs a degree, only to have a not so great gpa and then you are kinda screwed. With a 3.5 gpa you can get into a pretty good college and you might even have a chance of getting into university of Boulder or university of utah if you wanted to go that route. With a higher gpa you have a better chance at scholarships later on, and with a lower gpa you can still get into a lot of schools, but a 3.5 still allows you to do whatever you want after high school I feel like.
Apr 16 2021 7:06PM
Piss_BoyWhile i apreciate this, im not saying I want to drop out of school at all. I meant to ask if it was worth it pumping ALL of my energy into school like it seems everbody wants me to
You should complete the tasks you are given successfully with as little effort as possible. Life is all about efficiency, and you only get so many hours in the day.
Apr 16 2021 7:57PM
h3nry.It really depends on what you want to do after school. In 8th grade your grades won’t matter at all when applying for college and stuff, but I would say in high school at a minimum try for a 3.5 gpa. The worst thing to happen would be during junior or senior year to become super interested in something that needs a degree, only to have a not so great gpa and then you are kinda screwed. With a 3.5 gpa you can get into a pretty good college and you might even have a chance of getting into university of Boulder or university of utah if you wanted to go that route. With a higher gpa you have a better chance at scholarships later on, and with a lower gpa you can still get into a lot of schools, but a 3.5 still allows you to do whatever you want after high school I feel like.
I second this. You don't gotta be valedictorian, but try to get As and Bs in high school. It's not that hard and it keeps your options open.
Apr 16 2021 8:46PM
Apr 16 2021 9:08PM
School sucks. Plain and simple. Its worthwhile though. And damn you're super young. Its pretty wild that we have 8th graders nowadays questioning the directions of their lives so early. Chill the heck out and enjoy youth for a minute.
The US may not be the best at educating people but your life will be significantly better once they announce your name to grab your diploma in front of all your family and friends. Seriously. And give it some time, you're not even a HS freshman yet dude. Priorities can change and something might cross your mind that you'd be interested in pursuing after K-12. Don't just settle for bumping chairs, smoking dope, and skiing everyday. Aim for bigger shit.
Apr 16 2021 10:24PM
Piss_BoyGraphic design, pretty much anything to do with wood working especially the construction of skis. Also cooking is something im interested in. Tons of wildlife preservation and trail building stuff i enjoy as well
That's actually so sick. Don't worry kid, high school is coming you can pick up some of those courses you're into and then the world is your oyster. Grade school and high school mean nothing at all just get by and then you can whatever you want.
Apr 17 2021 1:32AM
I’m in 9th grade a hate school with every inch of my body. There’s a point when you just gotta stop fighting it and just get it done. Especially in highschool. Interests change people change life happens but doing well in highschool and having the option to go to a good college will benefit you if someday you make that choice. Also take studio art and media ASAP so you can take other art classes. Just figured you liked it cause of the graphic design stuff. Ceramics is fun and photography is also
Apr 19 2021 3:16AM
The school system and how we learn hasn't changed in decades but the world certainly has, especially since the creation of the internet. We spend so much time studying for exams just to dump the majority of the information immediately afterwards. Why would I memorize a bunch of stuff that I could just look up if I cared to know it?
Apr 19 2021 3:32AM
Its a coverup for the un-pc reality which is that most of your adult intelligence capability is due to the genes you got from your parents.
young kids intelligences show up very early in like erbs and other child standardized tests they give to you when your like 7 or 8 yrs old. And those strengths or weaknesses persist onto sats scores in high school and also on iq tests if the person ever takes one.
school is important to exercise your brain so you brain doesnt implode in boredom.
but i think kids a such information cookie monsters that just giving ghem smartphones and letting them wiki bushwack for hours every day will probably be more stimulation than kids ever got before the age of the internet.
in my exp smart ppl are always the curious ppl.
if you have no desire to learn how anything ever works then you probably have low general intelligence.
Like for the kids these days that spend 8 hrs a day texting their friends and 1 hour per year looking something up on google or wiki, then these people probably need to be prodded along in school, but who really cares enough to force idiots into not being idiots?
The only thing that really should be pushed on kids is math. If a kid tries so hard at math that they finally get the hang of it, they will have a solid base for self esteem for the rest of their life and they will actually know what kind of work and diligence goes into almost everything they see in the world, making their minds more valuable career wise.
but if somebody has no work ethic to understand math then nobody should give a fuck about what happens to them. Just give them welfare and tell them to shut the fuck up.
Apr 19 2021 4:25AM
My biggest piece of advice for someone who sounds just like myself at that age is to just maintain a solid gpa and get as involved with school as you can.
Don’t be one of those kids that tries to act all antisocial and is always negative about everything. High school is fun asf and it’s way more enjoyable when you keep an open mind and explore a bit. Try to meet as many people as you possibly can. It’s all what you make of it.
As far as academics, it seems you’re more than capable, but you lack the motivation and interest, which is something I struggled a lot with. Just do what you gotta do, and get that diploma. Honestly looking back, the work was easy asf, and 80% of the experience was just socializing. Just stick with it for 4 years and after that you can do whatever, but you can’t do shit without a hs diploma.
Apr 19 2021 12:33PM
Everybody brings up really good points. High school, just like everything in life, is what you make it. If you go into it thinking that your going to hate it and have no fun, then that’s what will happen. As a senior who’s about to graduate, all I can say is, enjoy it. It’s going to fly by. I know your probably thinking, like I did “oh yeah totally, 4 years is going to go fast” but anyone else who’s graduated high school and/or college would probably agree with me. As for the academic side of things, just keep your head down and grind them out. I did a bunch of stuff my first 3 years so that I could take PSEO classes this year (free college classes for credit). This semester I have 4 classes total and was able to ski or do whatever I wanted to do. So, like I said, keep up the grades as best as you can and have fun.
Apr 19 2021 1:28PM
Trust me man you just gotta grind through that shit, ima jr in hs rn and I’ve been grinding hard since freshman year and it’s payed off. I’m going to be able to go to basically any school I want and get a pretty decent scholarship. Even if you go to a state school your grades will heavily impact your scholarship, so you gotta ask yourself if these years and the grind are worth not paying an extra 50k in student loans in college. school isn’t suppose to be easy and especially in hs if you don’t care and don’t turn shit in you will fail, so just do your best and try your hardest, even if it means sacrificing shot that you like to do sometimes
Apr 19 2021 2:15PM
Just get good grades anyway. This certainly won't be the last time you'll have to succeed in something you don't like and lack motivation for. Also from talking to kids at the skatepark, online school sounds like bullshit so maybe let that blow over. But it's only useless if you think you're there to memorize the date of some event from 400 years ago. You're not; you're there to develop your brain. The study habits you'll learn doing that, and the brain power (however that manifests itself) you gain from it all is your takeaway. Obviously much of the factual information, mathematics etc will be irrelevant to a large number of people, but it's all a vehicle for brain development.
Also don't decide your career in grade eight. Ask any adult* if their plans from high school panned out and they'll say well not exactly, if they even considered them relevant after graduation. A huge number of kids' plans made during college didn't even come close to becoming reality when they graduated, long after their high school plans were forgotten, and they still haven't years later. A long term goal is important but so is flexibility and willingness to change. Setting yourself up for failure is a bad plan no matter what, though.
You want motivation? High school can be easy and relatively stress free. Learn your shit now and you can probably be one of those kids who just pays attention in class, does the required homework, does minimal extra studying and gets good grades with a high level of efficiency, aka free time. Then when you graduate you're not going to get rejected from whatever is it you attempt on the basis of poor grades in HS.
Notably, for four years you have a high degree of certainty what's coming next and all you have to do is show up, pay attention and put in a bit of extra effort outside of class. You won't understand why that's so great until you're a self-supporting adult.
*Younger adult. Boomers had it easy.
Apr 19 2021 4:17PM
Apr 19 2021 9:15PM
ASAPCarterMy biggest piece of advice for someone who sounds just like myself at that age is to just maintain a solid gpa and get as involved with school as you can.Don’t be one of those kids that tries to act all antisocial and is always negative about everything. High school is fun asf and it’s way more enjoyable when you keep an open mind and explore a bit. Try to meet as many people as you possibly can. It’s all what you make of it.
As far as academics, it seems you’re more than capable, but you lack the motivation and interest, which is something I struggled a lot with. Just do what you gotta do, and get that diploma. Honestly looking back, the work was easy asf, and 80% of the experience was just socializing. Just stick with it for 4 years and after that you can do whatever, but you can’t do shit without a hs diploma.
Thanks man, but im definetly not antisocial. I take school so lightly the whole day is just jokes pretty much. Not in a class disrupting way and all that, but you know...I have fun
Apr 20 2021 12:50AM
Apr 20 2021 2:10AM
Seen a lot of good advice above that I agree with, I’d also add to someone’s earlier comment about trying to see what its actually like to work at a certain job. When i was in grade 9 I went to a volunteer trail building night and it led to me getting hired full time on the trail building crew which was sick for a couple years, ultimately tho i realized that physical work 10hrs/day wasnt really my thing and that i prefer to do it on my own time. So yea basically sounds like there’s things you’re interested in which is awesome, try and check them out in the job context to see what the jobs are actually like, and beyond that try and enjoy school. For reference im in uni for eng, i did my best to get the grades i needed but also enjoy school and not worry too much and it worked out alright. You got this.
Apr 23 2021 12:22PM
Piss_BoyGraphic design, pretty much anything to do with wood working especially the construction of skis. Also cooking is something im interested in. Tons of wildlife preservation and trail building stuff i enjoy as well
I started doing graphic design in GIMP in the 8th grade and switched to Photoshop in 9th and I'm now a self taught professional graphic designer. Follow your dreams but it's gonna be a hustle and definitely at least get a high school diploma and learn how to network your skills.
Apr 23 2021 2:32PM
Apr 27 2021 11:45AM
As someone who was shit in school, barely graduated High School, and hated college 1 semester in. I will say you can reach success in life. But you need to grind, network well, not burn bridges, etc.
I owe both careers I have had post-military to one person who got my foot in the door both times, and then it was my hard work, and flexibility that got me further. It took a lot of being the guy willing to get on a plane, go do the shitty job, work the long hours to be the lead in my department now.
Apr 27 2021 12:52PM