Academic Stressors: What if you really don’t like a teacher or a class but have to stick it out?
We’ve all been there. You start a class and as things get going, you start to get the sense that this is going to be a tough road. It might be because you don’t like the teacher, or it might be because the material is either too hard or does not interest you at all.
When that happens, what can you do?
Try to determine specifically what the struggle is.
Does everyone struggle with this teacher, or is it just you? Ask around, whether it’s classmates or older students who have taken the class before and try to determine which it is.
Are you going off of rumors about the teacher without actually giving them a chance? This is super common, so if you think that’s what you’re doing, don’t beat yourself up. Some teachers have ‘that’ reputation, and it could be valid, or it could be simply a personality quirk, and who knows, you may even click with the teacher when many others don’t!
Is it that you don’t like the subject or historically have struggled with it, so you’ve gone in with a negative mindset? If it is, be honest with yourself about that, so that you can embrace tools and a mindset shift in order to succeed.
What if it’s about not liking the teacher?
You may truly just not like the teacher. The teacher may in fact be unpleasant or, even worse, unfair in some way.
If that’s the case, it might be helpful to recognize that not always liking a supervisor, boss, teacher is a part of life.
This is a chance to be ‘professional’ and learn a life skill about how you can succeed even if you don’t love the teacher. Make it a challenge and set a goal to succeed anyway!
Realize that life will always cause us to bump up against people who are different from us. Much like the above point, learning to get along with people who are different from us is a life skill that, once learned, can help you thrive better than others who don’t.
See if you can separate the work that you have to do from the person you’re doing it with. If you can, you’ll be miles ahead of others in the workforce someday.
Remember that you can only control how you handle the situation, and do your best to be proud of your role. You may find that as you adjust your attitude towards one of striving to do your best no matter what, the teacher seems to treat you differently and your relationship changes.
What if it’s about not liking the subject?
I’ll be honest- I have always struggled with history. I want to care, I really do! But it is the subject where, no matter how hard I try, I often find that shortly into reading or listening, I am thinking about something else entirely.
What I ultimately, admittedly reluctantly, learned was that not liking a subject meant I had to work extra hard on it if I wanted to succeed. I had to spend even more time than I wanted (which was often none) with the material in order to absorb it.
So, if you don’t like the subject, that may mean that you have to shift how you approach it, and even how you study. And again- consider a mindset shift and make it a challenge to succeed!
What if it’s about the class being super challenging for you?
We are all built differently, and so for every individual some subjects will come more easily than others.
If you don’t like the class because it’s hard, it’s likely that it’s going to be a source of stress for you.
If that is the case, there are two things you can do:
Manage your expectations. Do what you can to be comfortable with a grade you may not usually accept, simply in the name of giving yourself a little grace and space to breathe.
Seek support. The more that you use your resources, the more likely you will succeed.
As we’ve talked about in the past, be sure to let your teacher know you’re invested and you care by asking good questions and taking advantage of whatever they might offer in the form of study sessions and study guides.
Find out if there are study groups, and if there aren’t, see if you might be able to organize one yourself.
Ask your teacher or counselor or advisor how to connect with a tutor. And just a note about tutors: if you don’t connect with the first one, there’s nothing wrong with trying a different one. Tutors are the same as teachers or even therapists- the relationship and style of communication can make a big difference!
Being proactive and doing your best to maintain a positive attitude will help you if you don’t like a teacher or a class. But if all else fails, and you’ve done all the above and are still struggling, then it may be time to go have a chat with your school counselor!
They may not be able to get you out of the class (actually, it is more likely that they can’t than that they can, although in some cases it is warranted and does happen) but they can be a source of support.
And as usual, a reminder: Ready to Hope is here for you! We can’t promise you we can help you with algebra (although we certainly can’t promise you we won’t talk about algebra at a workshop, so who knows?!), but we can promise you we are here to support your mental wellness, which can have a huge impact on your ability to do your best!
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