Love this, UM, and need it today!
I do feel for you- and yep, that intensity! Ugh. I recognize my DD in so many of your posts, and do relate. Middle school was definitely tough, though I will say I love and am very proud of the girl that emerged at the end.
We are currently in a rough spot in a few classes- the worst, at least for me to deal with, is AP world history. In our school, there really isn't much of a choice in history classes, the honors section is frankly low-level. Most of the kids DD considers peers take AP, so that's were she ended up, fully knowing the course is a test-prep fest.
She is having a hard time hiding her frustration with the required busy work and lack of real critical thinking. The other day, after a class in which kids were required to write an essay in 45 minutes citing and discussing 13 primary source documents, she became irate and walked out when the teacher tried to talk to her. She was later publicly chastised for "not wanting to challenge herself"- which is a real laugh if you actually know DD. Despite this, she has a 100 average in the class, because she has nailed the formulaic expectations and knows exactly what the teacher looks for when grading- it is a farce, she knows it, and now the teacher is defensive and angry with her. I'm not sure she can hold it in until June. The alternative is dropping down to honors level, and listening to her rants about the low level of teaching and class discussion (though I guess I am hearing those anyway, so maybe we should consider it...)
Thanks for listening, and hang in there!
