School is Boring Because I Don't Feel Challenged

[Joshua the Writer]

I really don't find school challenging at all. It's kinda boring. I have pretty much been doing the exact same since the first quarter of 9th grade: Study a just a little bit, take an assessment or test, crush said assessment/test. It gets kinda boring. I want my schoolwork to challenge me. I also get the correct answers in a shorter-than-usual amount of time compared to other students. You may be wondering: Why are you disappointing? You are the kind of student that teachers praise! Well, to answer that question, it's because it I am so smart (sorry if it seems like I'm bragging) it feels like I'm cheating, even though I'm doing all of the work myself. It kinda sucks, to be honest. I also have gained a reputation among my teachers that I am the most useful student, since I answer questions other students have (this is online school), and correctly, too. That also feels kinda boring. School is so easy for me right now, it kinda feels like I'm a much less physically invulnerable Saitama. I see a test, take it, ace it. It's boring. And I mean insanely boring. Anyways, do you feel the same way? Also, here is just a random GIF I thought I should just insert randomly because I found it online, and just wanted to spread it to other sites.

 

[tree]

So, why not do extra work?

Make up your own challenges.
Turn them in to the teacher, if you want.

I had fun doing things like that.
Writing un-assigned papers.....

 

[Joshua the Writer]

So, why not do extra work?

Make up your own challenges.
Turn them in to the teacher, if you want.

I had fun doing things like that.
Writing un-assigned papers.....

IDK if my school allows for students to have that much creative freedom for students, TBH. The teachers do most of the extra credit. Also, teachers put strict page limits on papers.

 

[tree]

I didn't say do it for extra credit.

And if your teachers aren't interested in reading
voluntary work you've done, maybe there are
some people somewhere else that are.

Like a jr. college, for instance.

 

[Gritches]

Don't ever take advice from me, or take anything I say as advice, but I started college at 16 for a variety of reasons one of which being that nobody saw any reason for me to get a high school edumacation. I mean, really I stopped going to school after 7th grade (it's complicated) but I did not suffer for missing out on anything past 7th grade.

But yeah it was the same thing for me in college; get test, take test, ace test. As for how to deal with the boredom of not being challenged: if you were at a regular high school I'd recommend doing extra-curriculars that would be useful in college, but I have no idea what's available in that department for online schooling.

 

[Fino]

Why do you want to be challenged in school? It seems like a common misconception that a person can only learn if it's for something, for school or for homework or for a test or for a grade. At the risk of sounding horribly cliche and obnoxious, the learning itself is the joy! Just do the easy work then go read/learn about something that interests you. I ignored my school work almost entirely and spent my time reading and writing.

 

[puzzlingbill]

I went to a public high school and it was really easy for me too. But then I went to an academically strong university, and I wasn't ready for it. The most important thing in the long run is that you develop your brain. If school isn't challenging enough, find something elsewhere.

 

[Progster]

I had a general problem with boredom when I was a kid, not just at school. I needed to be occupied with something all the time, and got bored very easily.

I was in school during the 70s and 80s in the UK, and things were a lot different then to how they are now. There was much more emphasis on academic achievement and less on social integration and cooperation. Kids wee streamed into sets according to ability, so it was less likely that a child would get bored, and kids who were seen to find the class easy were moved up to the next set.

For me, subjects which relied on understanding and absorbing information such as biology were very easy, but I had difficulty with subjects like algebra on interpretation of poetry, which relied on abstract thinking.

 

[Mr Allen]

School sucks.

Fact of life mate, deal with it. You'll be out in a few years

 

[Joshua the Writer]

School sucks.

Fact of life mate, deal with it. You'll be out in a few years

Two, to be precise.

 

[Autistamatic]

I always found school boring and unchallenging and attended the same system as @Progster above. I just turned my energies to out of school interests, like programming in assembly language, reading voraciously, building things and the like. Since school. weren't doing a great job of expanding my horizons, I expanded my own.

 

[Graphin]

Develop your own life and challenges. I think one should be glad for having an easy school, because that means one can actually do actual good stuff instead of wasting time

 

[Sir Stig]

I stopped caring in my second year of preschool. First the teachers handed me old math books at the same level, and I ran through them in no time. Then I got the books on higher levels, and was accused of cheating since I did the math in my head and not on paper (But how could I have cheated, I didn't have the answer key. There was no internet in those days). Eventually I got stuck at equations with 2 unknown. Instead of helping me, so I could develop these skills, I had to wait until the rest of my class were supposed to learn it. We are talking YEARS. So I was placed in a separate room with a friend that have dyslexia, so I could try and teach him, and not disturb the class. It was okay, and I liked those hours, but unfortunately it killed my interest in math.

I got praise for my novels in norwegian (not a very good language in my opinion), and my teacher tried to encourage me to write more. My imagination ran wild, and I think he wanted me to learn how to tie the story together more. I don't know why I didn't pursue it. I suspect because I didn't see the problem. In my mind it is perfectly logical to jump from A to Z. It saves time. The same teacher got angry at me at a later point, saying I was always taking the easy route. I didn't understand what he meant until a few years ago. If he wanted me to struggle more, he should have given me harder tasks. Why should one take the hard way, when there is an easy route?! I think my point is still valid, but people insist that the hard way is the best road ever (I see the value of delayed gratification, but if you delay it on purpose you are just fooling your own brain. Still get the reward from it though... Hmm, got to think more about this one).

Anyway... you could check out Khan Academy. A lot of universities also have free online courses. If you have the capacity, go for it. More knowledge is seldom bad, except: The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know. But that's not really bad. It is strangely comforting. Few really knows what they are doing, and where it will bring them. Stressing through their life in order to make enough money so that they can live. I find that funny in an Alan Watts kind of way.

 

[Autistamatic]

I got praise for my novels in norwegian

Do you still write? Your English is extremely good and I'm sure you could find an AS collaborator to proof read very easily if you wanted extra confidence. There's quite an appetite for Nordic fiction in English speaking countries after the success of Steig Larsson and the popularity of TV series like The Killing, The Bridge, Trapped and Deadwind.

 

[Sir Stig]

Do you still write? Your English is extremely good and I'm sure you could find an AS collaborator to proof read very easily if you wanted extra confidence.

Thank you I scribble small pieces sometimes. I'll definitely consider it.

 

[Nervous Rex]

My advise is to find a personal hobby, project, or topic you want to study. Let school be boring, get through it, and focus your energy on something you can be passionate about. I always recommend a creative hobby. It can be writing, building stuff, solving math problems, programming, art, crafts, mechanics, woodwork, etc., but look for something in which you create.

I went to a very small school and breezed through everything up through high school (academically, not socially). The teaching methods at the time were, "Memorize these things. Put them on the test." ... which I am very good at. So, I got good grades, but I caused trouble when I got bored, which was most often. I got into reading, and at one point I was reading two books a day. But I could have used a hobby or a creative outlet. I didn't find mine until two decades after school.

 

[Joshua the Writer]

Holy crap! Thanks for the feature, staff!

 

[the_tortoise]

Are there gifted/advanced placement programs for online learning?

Or maybe you could take a course or two at a college/university that offers online study?

 

[Graphin]

My recommendation, if you get tempted about obsessing about some fictional universes and their history, consider doing that with the real version. Real history science and whatever usually are very interesting if you find out how to do it properly. Bonus point for it likely being useful later. It's a shame in how many lose interesting in those things because it sucked in school

 

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I found school really boring and unchallenging, but that just made me struggle because I couldn't pay attention during class to learn the material. I feel like I learned more than the other kids in class because I was always reading the book, and I'd get to many parts that we never approached in classwork. But I still did poorly on tests, especially when it was arbitrary facts such as history.

I did best in classes where I was challenged. In first grade, my teacher realized that I was too good at math to be doing first grade math, so she tested me and placed me into third grade math. While I wasn't very interested in math, it felt very special to be in my own study group for math. That got me excited to go to math, and in working one-on-one with a teacher's assistant, I did exceptionally well in my third grade math. It's too bad my teacher didn't realize I was above first grade reading...

When I went to second grade, nothing carried over and I got stuck doing boring, elementary second grade math. I complained about it to the teacher but she refused to do anything about it. This I believe was the moment when I first began to hate school, and felt demoralized over the whole thing.

I think what I needed and perhaps what you need are advanced placement classes, or fast track learning. You need to be able to surge ahead and have the material keep up with you, and not be held back by the other, slower students. It's entirely up to your teachers and parents to make that happen for you, but you can ask them to do that. If you study a lot for higher learning, you might be able to skip a lot of college classes and just take their CLEP tests. It'll save you some money and a lot of time.