QotD: High School

High school is often asinine and lame — I'm not telling you anything you don't know here — but on the other hand it's a place where you're actually encouraged to do two things that are a writer's bread and butter: to observe and to comment. Provided your teachers are not entirely defeated drones who have bought into the idea that their sole purpose is to detain you in soul-numbing classes so you and your fellow students won't set fire to the school with them in it, they will actually be pleased if you ask a few pointed questions now and then, and as a result, you might learn something, which is always a nice bonus for your day. School is a resource; use it.

John Scalzi, "10 Things Teenage Writers Should Know About Writing", Whatever, 2006-04-27