Smart But Barely Made It Through School. Why?

Here's an email from a reader I got last week. He struggled in high school...then, at 27, went to college. Here's what he says about high school now.

I very much enjoyed your book. I struggled unbelievably in my high school career for a number of reasons and have worked hard to help other young men who are in the same situation.

Some of the thoughts I came up with:

The wide disparaging of quality in our national school system and their standards. For myself, I moved from a very poor high school district in IL where I did fairly well academically to a very wealthy suburban school in MN. Upon arriving I realized how academically ahead all of these students were of me and I could not find a path to catch up. They had been taking AP courses since their sophomore year and I had no idea what AP even was.

I could not find any way to compete with these kids and viewed college as something I could never achieve. Deep down I was every bit as smart and creative as those students, but I didn't have a way of expressing that.

As a student, I never learned well in large groups being lectured. I needed to touch, feel, get my hands dirty to learn. I needed movement.

I did graduate HS, but barely, I had to take summer courses to get enough credits.

Since that time I feel I was fairly successful in the business world and eventually chose to go back to school at age 27. I am currently going full time to (name of college) where I hope to graduate next year. Its been a learning experience. There is nothing like being in a classroom with a female teacher, and a nearly all female class telling you how bad men are because they make $1.00 for every $.72 a women earns.

Thanks for the writing this book.