I was struggling in high school, due to the fact that everyone thought I was autistic when I was just bored (I did need some accommodations, just not the ones they thought I did).
Social Studies
I was consistently a C student, but studied my ASS off for the last part of the year and final exam. Take-home essay (we could ask parents to critique it as far as content and grammar/spelling) and multiple-choice in class. I wound up with an A, pulling my year grade up to a B+. Go me! ...well, the teacher wanted to have me expelled for plagiarism and cheating (what?!) She honestly could not fathom that someone could actually get motivated enough to pull their grade out of the gutter. Eventually we prevailed (that involved numerous meetings with the department head and headmaster, and would have gone higher IIRC).
English
Junior year, a teacher had it in for me. Claimed plagiarism on a Death of a Salesman essay I wrote (although it couldn't be proven), and after being told I would come away with a C, she turned around and failed me with no explanation
That grade was never rescinded or changed.
My school required students to take a "senior English" class. Basically a whole class devoted to writing a senior essay--both the essay and the class were required for graduation--that could be done quite well on one's own (which I ended up doing). I got tossed into a special-ed class that had nothing to do with writing the senior essay and that I hated. We spent half the year reading some abysmal young-adult sports novel (one of the ones with an insipid "life lesson")...I finished the odd little thing in two days and got talked down to when I brought other books (the good stuff, Heinlein, Lovecraft, Pratchett et al) in "Oh, this book looks hard, come on and keep up with the class"...had she only asked, I could have answered any question she had about the class reading.
The second half of the year, we were to keep "reading logs" like in second grade. I was a huge smartass then and had some fun with it...The King In Yellow, Necronomicon, all kinds of stuff that in the universe of said books were not to actually be read.
Social Studies
I was consistently a C student, but studied my ASS off for the last part of the year and final exam. Take-home essay (we could ask parents to critique it as far as content and grammar/spelling) and multiple-choice in class. I wound up with an A, pulling my year grade up to a B+. Go me! ...well, the teacher wanted to have me expelled for plagiarism and cheating (what?!) She honestly could not fathom that someone could actually get motivated enough to pull their grade out of the gutter. Eventually we prevailed (that involved numerous meetings with the department head and headmaster, and would have gone higher IIRC).
English
Junior year, a teacher had it in for me. Claimed plagiarism on a Death of a Salesman essay I wrote (although it couldn't be proven), and after being told I would come away with a C, she turned around and failed me with no explanation

My school required students to take a "senior English" class. Basically a whole class devoted to writing a senior essay--both the essay and the class were required for graduation--that could be done quite well on one's own (which I ended up doing). I got tossed into a special-ed class that had nothing to do with writing the senior essay and that I hated. We spent half the year reading some abysmal young-adult sports novel (one of the ones with an insipid "life lesson")...I finished the odd little thing in two days and got talked down to when I brought other books (the good stuff, Heinlein, Lovecraft, Pratchett et al) in "Oh, this book looks hard, come on and keep up with the class"...had she only asked, I could have answered any question she had about the class reading.
The second half of the year, we were to keep "reading logs" like in second grade. I was a huge smartass then and had some fun with it...The King In Yellow, Necronomicon, all kinds of stuff that in the universe of said books were not to actually be read.
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