Back in vocational school – a school you attend alongside the more hands-on training while learning a trade job – I, alongside a small handful of other students from my class, were excused from certain lessons/classes due to having prior higher education. Whoever made my class’s new lesson plan obviously didn’t take this into account. I am also a few years older than most of my classmates and thus legally an adult with all the mental capabilities to make informed decisions of my own – something that this school is/was evidently not used to.
Me: “Excuse me, Mrs. [teacher], our lesson plan shows that after your class ends on Monday, we have an hour of lunch, then four hours of [class I am excused from] and then one hour of [class that is mandatory (but completely pointless) for everyone with a teacher that is known for always arriving at least 15min late] as the very last class of the day. That can’t be right.”
Teacher: *Checking the lesson plan.* “Oh, well, I guess it is. It’s okay, though, you can just sit in the cafeteria during your free time.”
Me: “With all due respect, I am not going to be twiddling my thumbs in the cafeteria for five hours every Monday. I have better things to do with my time. And I’m sure so do [other students that are excused from the Monday afternoon classes].”
Teacher: “Well, [last class] is mandatory, so you’ll have to figure something out.”
Me: “…Alright then. May I step outside real quick to make a call to my workplace?”
Teacher: “Yes, yes, but be quick.”
So figure something out I did – by calling my really chill boss/trainer at work, explaining the situation to him, and getting his permission to skip class on Monday afternoon since I had straight A’s anyway. His exact words were “The f*** do they expect you to get done in that one lesson anyway?”
Two weeks of skipping Monday afternoon class later, my teacher calls me to her office.
Teacher: “So [other teacher] told me you’ve been skipping his class on Monday afternoon. I know you’re by far our best student, but that doesn’t mean you can just not follow the rules. I will have to call your workplace about this to let them know.”
Me: “Sure, go right ahead. I’ll wait.”
The teacher makes the call, looking noticeably unhappy upon being told that they gave me their okay to skip class and to not interrupt my boss’ work for ‘something so trivial.’
Me: “So, was there anything else you needed me for?”
Teacher: “…No, you may leave. But I will still have to give you in-school detention for missing three hours of mandatory class so far!”
Me: “You mean like all the detention [notoriously late classmate] has noticeably never gotten so far, even though he has missed at least half of every single lesson we have had first thing in the morning for… how many months now? That must add up to a lot more than my three hours. I’m sure you’ll want to stay after class to make up all that lost time with him too, considering his grades, if you’re so adamant about me skipping three pointless lessons of a class I’m acing.”
Teacher: “That’s enough. Get out.”
Me: “Gladly.”
I never got that detention, nor did the notoriously late classmate I mentioned. And that one late Monday afternoon class was cancelled altogether, another three weeks later.
Turns out I wasn’t even the only one who had skipped it, just the only one who had gotten permission by their boss beforehand, and yet the only one who had gotten a talking to like this.
It took a few more similar scenarios to this before my teachers stopped bothering me and just let me do my thing. I was still acing every class and finished school as the top student, of all classes of all years.