>   Being 16, you -can- quit school, tho, and pursue
 > whatever interests you
 >   have.  GEDs are easy enough to get, and maybe
 > there's some local colleges
 >   where you can take courses..
Another alternative that might be available - recently, school districts in 
our area have decided to adopt a different attitude towards homeschoolers: 
"if you can't beat 'em, join 'em". They have set up a K-12 Homeschooling 
program in conjunction with the district. It's called New Directions in our 
district, but different districts have different names for it.
A colleague of mine just transferred her daughter from regular high school, 
where she was failing miserably and hating every minute of it, to New 
Directions. Tami takes one high school course every 6 weeks, concentrating 
completely on Science for 6 weeks, then Math for 6 weeks, etc. Tami has a 
counselor available thru the district to help her, can schedule herself for 
two mornings a week at the computer center at New Directions Bldg. if they 
don't have a home computer (and they don't). My colleague says that the 
change in Tami has been phenomenal. She isn't real thrilled that she isn't 
totally in charge of the homeschooling, but my colleague knows that she has 
to work (she is legally separated from her husband pending divorce) and that 
Tami is doing well under the school program.
I don't normally advocate the school-based homeschooling programs either, but 
this case shows you that it can work for some kids.
                                 -donna
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