I was really bored in high school, and skipped a lot too. Skipping was fun
Going to class, not so much lol! Except for a few classes that were made up of just the few of us very geeky science nerds… with teachers who taught us at our level. That kept me going. I have often been annoyed that I willingly spent hours daydreaming my way through the slow and boring classes because I felt that didn't help me develop good habits for paying attention in lectures when I needed to in college and beyond. OTOH, I think I'm by nature a day-dreamer so I'm not sure it's fair to blame all of that tendency on being under-challenged in high school.
We're just beginning the high school journey with our kids - but fwiw, high school is so very different now in terms of options than it was when I was young (a long time ago). There were electives and honors courses and AP courses (although far fewer) when I was in high school, but that was about it. Today our public high schools (where we live) offer credits for online classes, for courses taken through programs such as CTY, for mentorships in the community, for courses taken at both of our local universities, and we have several alternative programs as well as the traditional honors and highly gifted programs. The opportunities for having challenge and studying in your area of passion as a high school student *today* are just absolutely 100 times more abundant than they were when I had my relatively "non-challenging" high school experience. I hope they will continue to offer more variety and opportunities as the world changes in the next 10+ years for the children on this board who are just starting out in their education journey.
Just a thought
polarbear
