Help Persuading an Idiot
 

If you've ever heard Lewis Black's standup regarding why people get an aneurism -- they hear somethign stupid but don't get the opportunity to vent about it -- you'll understand why I'm posting this. I also need some advice.

I spend half my day at highschool and half at a local University. I'm currently independent studying for the Microeconomics AP test. Anyone who has taken an AP test knows theres a significant amount of studying involved in taking an AP test when you take the class, let alone independent studying for one. I have to independent study because I go to college and so I couldn't get into the AP class. My jackass teacher, however, won't allow me to skip out on some of the regular economics class work so that I have more time to study for the AP test even though he acknowledges that the work is mindless, far below what I'm capable of, and generally just dumb for me to be doing.

His reason? "The state of Indiana requires you to learn certain things. Microeconomics [Ed Note: the technical term for Econ AP] doesn't satisfy those requirements." "So then how are people able to graduate after taking Econ AP?" "After the AP test I go over some macroeconomics stuff with them." "So after the AP test I'll go over the macroeconomics stuff myself too." "I'm sorry, you can't do that."

Any ideas on how I could persuade him?

NOTE: The other reason I'm irritated has been spoiler colored so you don't have to read it if you don't have to.

So I'm walking onto the college campus and I see three girls holding up posters. One is a picture of a fetus. One says "Which would you rather have? A country where the leader kills his citizens, or one where the people kill children?" I don't even remember what the other one said. I make a concentrated effort to walk past them. I really do. But about 2 feet after I walk past the last one, I had to turn around. I notice one of the girls is like 10. I don't think she even knows how a baby is conceived.

"What makes you think anyone cares?" They start spouting some crap. Things like "Did you know that ever since we started holding up these posters abortion rates have dropped 40%?" [Ed Note: This is stupid because the girl who said this was the ten year old. And the reason abortion rates have dropped 40% since they started holding those signs is because of policymakers at the state and national level making it an unreasonable pain in the ass to get an abortion.] I listen to them blather on and on and on and I'm so staggered by the stupidity of some of the things they're saying so I just have to walk away. About 10 feet after them some guy is passing out little pamphlets, I notice that they have the picture of the fetus on the back. He tries to give me one. I shake my head and keep walking, trying not to explode.

Heres why I was so staggered/angry: Seriously, what makes these people think that anyone cares about them standing up and holding a poster? They have their opinions, thats all well and good. Have your opinions. Thats a good thing. Opinions rock. But do you really think having a 10 year old hold up a 4 foot by 4 foot sign of a fetus accomplishes that point? About 2 minutes after I walked away I realized I could've asked them one really good question: "Which would you rather have, a dead baby or a child that spends 18 years being abused and raped by a drunken father or grows up in a single mother home which you people also have problems with, and that child then goes on to become a murder or abuse their own children which you blame on society because you couldn't tolerate the humanity of ending a life which had no future in the first place?"

Why do I always think of these things afterwards?

I know exactly what you're talking about. This probably happens because you then fully understand the situation and then have something to say but it's already too late. This has happened to me on several occasions.

I'll be honest. In the first case, just shutup and do the work. Everyone before you did, everyone after you will. You are not a special and unique snowflake. You are just another student going through the class. If you can't deal with mundane mindless boring work now then man oh man are you going to hate the real world.

In the second case: what makes them think they can do that? The bill of rights. You reserve the right as well to tell them to shut the hell up, to quit invading your own privacy by ramming those things in your face. But just because they are morally charged zealots, general assholes, or even people with a legitimate point, they have the right to stand there and do that.

Does anyone care? Probably people with the same opinion as them. Will it change a damn thing? No. Do they care that it accomplishes nothing? A resounding no.

Ultimately I think you just need to shut up and color. That's my opinion. Sorry for harshness.

I'll agree with Shiney on this one. I realize the work is boring and mindless, but if it's that far beneath your ability, then it shouldn't be a problem for you. It may be time consuming, so if you're that intent on doing well on the AP exam, perhaps you should think about making some sacrifices.

Instead of spending time on the Nuklear Power forums, study for your exam. Instead of watching TV or doing this or that, study for the exam. I mean, once you take it, you're done, so it's only a temporary sacrifice. So, make some extra time here and there. It may not be fun or enjoyable or easy, but in the end it'll be worth it.

Heres the thing shiney -- independent studying for this test involves a lot of extra effort, because there is no overlap of material of any kind. When I talked to the teacher about independent studying, he gave the impression that he understood that I'd be putting in a lot of extra effort and he'd do his best to help me out.

The way he's handling the situation now, in my mind, is as if someone hired you for a job at $20 an hour, you moved across the country for this job, and once you got there they said they'd pay you minimum wage for a completely different job or nothing at all.

Its not that the work is a problem, its that the work takes time, a commodity in short supply. I have made sacrifices, and at this point NPF is basically my sole 'entertainment' that prevents me from going utterly insane. Its not like I'm only taking 1 AP test either, plus I conveniently have college finals at the same time. I even offered to do alternate work -- heck, I offered to write an essay a week analyzing what I learned from the book or something. Why do I have time to write that essay but not to do the regular econ work? Because it'd take me all of 15 minutes to churn out a three page single spaced paper because my thought process functions that way anyway.

And don't be apologetic for harshness. I wouldn't have posted this up here if I weren't expecting opinions of all kinds. I'm looking for honesty.

EDIT: Just to further clarify how I make time for NPF, the way it works is that I do research at a local university when I'm not in class there/at a high school class. This research just happens to be theoretical/computer based. In between submitting jobs to the supercomputer, I can usually squeeze in some NPF time.

I know this is going to fall on deaf ears, but do you know how many demonstrations for or against this and that I've seen? I grew up in Alaska, so coming down to Seattle and seeing everything that goes on downtown... especially the WTO riots... god those were pointless... was a bit of a shock. But regardless, just shrug it off and move on. People that concerned with their own opinion are not likely to listen to yours, just the same as you're not likely to listen to theirs. This isn't to say one is wrong and one is right, it's just one of those basic human fundamentals, difference, that makes us who we are.

It also helps to remember that the main purpose of any protest/demonstration is to annoy the hell out of everyone who isn't in it. Just a little food for thought.

Well, from the information with the AP test and the other work you have to do, there does not seem to be a lot of options. The only thing that I can think of is, if possible work faster.

People are also entitled to say and demonstrate how they want, as long as it's peaceful. Just blank them out like you would other annoyences.

Also, the problem of thinking of a great retort or comment happens to everybody. That's why the forums have an edit button and pencils have erasers.

Sorry, but just do it. If he lets you off, and other kids find out, what's he going to say to them? "Oh well, he had special circumstances." There would be an outcry. It's unreasonable to expect he's going to put his ass on the line just for you, as there would probably be an inquiry into him 'playing favorites' or something. He could potentially get in a lot of trouble, regardless of how 'secret' it's kept.

He may be trying to help you out in other ways such as not grading you as harshly or something. You don't know. But the simple fact is, you're going to have to do the work, and feeling like some injustice is being done to you is in a way rather arrogant, since there are probably others who have gone, are going or will go throgh the exact same experience.

He isn't the one to be upset with, it's the state, but as there is nothing you can do about it all I can say is toughen up and deal with it. I've had to do that plenty of times; I took a state mandated test and got every economics question right, so theoretically I already had all the knowledge I needed, but the school didn't care. Then the jackass of a teacher made the class unnecessarially(sp?) hard.

The point? You have no power and cannot do anything about it. For the other problem I'd go with shiney on it.

your at a college or University studying this, obviously. you do realize that he isn't teaching you because he wants to teach you? University professors teach in exchange for storage room and funding. which translates to: if you skip, he's gonna ask for attendance reasons, and if you skip too much, he's gonna boot ya from the course, since missing too many days means you'll fail anyway. so geta friend to take some notes on a day that is relatively free, and spend the day studying.