New users’ email addresses pop up in my mail, mysterious cyberdenizens from distant lands or possibly next door. Sometimes I know a general region. I have a surprising number of Polish users, for example. But a name caught my attention yesterday.

Greetings to aloofstudent_etc.@etc. out there. Your name made me laugh. Still, I would like to comment. If you are referring to your social state, that’s fine. I support introverts. I am overdue for another stand against all this touchy-feely group work that I think discriminates against introverts. But if you are feeling aloof about the content being thrown your way, I’d like to make a few suggestions.

• Ask questions. A good “why” can wake up a teacher, shutting down robo-recitations. Why did the Cherokee accept those lies? Where did that three in the denominator come from? What are mitochondria good for? School will go by faster if you don’t get too zen about the whole mysterious information experience.
• Read the book. If the book bores you too badly, scan the book for topics and go looking for your own information. You’ll probably do better on the test if you hug the book, but if you understand the American Revolution when you are supposed to understand the American Revolution, you will do alright. It’s better to stay interested and sacrifice a few points then plow through a book you loathe.
• Hopelessly bored? Consider getting a parent involved. The gifted especially suffer under our all-inclusive classroom placements. Sometimes moms and dads can help convince teachers to create enrichment activities. If you understand everything the teacher says, you are in the wrong class, but you may also be in the only class that works with your schedule. If you can’t get out, at least try to find a way to do independent work in the library.
• It will improve your odds of slipping off the curricular leash if you create the framework for the independent work you wish to do. Rather than making the teacher create a new, special, individualized plan, try going to the teacher and suggesting your own plan. “I’d like to create a slideshow showing the history of the Apache during the period we are studying. Could I substitute that for blah blah blah? I could show you a rubric for it tomorrow.”
• Read. Try to find a genre you enjoy. Find your passion. Pursue your passion. Pursue more than one passion. Try interests on for size. Paint a little. Sculpt a little. Write a science fiction short story. Sew a quilt if you have the patience. Read a book on genetics.
• As the curricular noose tightens and the Common Core chips away at educational independence, you may find classes where you simply never make a connection. Don’t give up. Next year may be better. Just do your job. Answer questions 1 – 10 and make the best of it. Being bored is part of life. Training yourself to produce even when bored will have many long-term rewards.
• Try to work a few jokes into your work product if your teacher appreciates jokes. If you don’t know what the plant will do when put in the closet in the dark, you can always guess, but when you really have no idea, “Contact his home planet to arrange a rescue mission,” is a perfectly good answer. Well, no, it’s not. But it’s better than blank space. Heck, ask Siri or Cortana unless you are taking a test. Put the question into a search engine. Did Thor give up when he couldn’t lift his hammer? Did Ironman give up when he found himself inside the Afghan cave with Yinsen? No! Of course not. Persevere,
• Not sure if you want to do the homework? Ask yourself what Captain America would do. Don’t ask yourself what Ironman would do since he’d almost undoubtedly blow off the assignment — but you don’t have billions of dollars like Tony Stark. Until you do, it’s best to try to prepare to have the option to go to a good college.

Aloof is fine sometimes. Aloof can protect you from hours of inane conversation, trapped in the middle seat of an airplane row. But aloof never works as an approach to education. We all do our best work when we work with passion. Passion and aloofness are antonyms, matter and anti-matter. We all know what happens when matter meets antimatter. Ka-boom! KA-BOOM! Another education wasted. Another universe destroyed.

Eduhonesty: Tired tonight and this post seems a bit wacky. But I’ll stand on it. We can all do worse than to ask ourselves what Captain America would do.