Fortunately I wasn't in that kind of more ghetto culture so I didn't have to pretend to be dumb. I often just failed to find the meaning in most of the retarded lessons. This then pushed me away from valuable skills like learning multiplication. I knew that "Colombus sailed the ocean blue" was pointless so probably my times tables were as well. It didn't trust them. However, the bar on achievement is set so low that I could just pick it up the next year. That is really just a lot of wasted time. There is an early Star Trek TNG episode where a 11-12 year old kid is complaining about learning calculus. That is easily achievable. Instead we get fluoride toothpaste, Ritalin, gender confusion and baby sitting.