I have trouble going to class.

Some have called it a severe case of senioritis while others have dubbed it mere irresponsibility. But I know that neither diagnosis is correct. I just don’t need to go.

Everything that we cover during a 45-minute period, I could absorb in less than half the time by reading on my own. My classmates’ unending questions only hinder the learning process and make the idea of attending class even less appealing. And I would much rather read the work of a renowned writer than listen to a teacher lecture to an audience of unengaged teenagers.

So when I was offered a choice between detention and In-School Suspension after missing several after school detentions, I jumped at the opportunity to spend the entire day with a book.

I walked into the ISS room the next morning with comfy sweatpants and a snack, eagerly awaiting my punishment. The eyes of the students and supervisor widened immediately when they saw me.

Who is this girl that looks so “good”? Why is she here? I was confronted candidly by the stereotype of my self.

I sat down at a desk. A huge orange poster glared at me from the white board, heatedly proclaiming the rules of the room in capital letters.

No music. No talking to anyone if it is not about an “academic issue”. Work only on schoolwork. No sleeping. No cell phones. No games.

It was as though the discipline team had tried to pinpoint everything that made a teenager happy. This was a torture room, a prison for the typecast high school delinquent.

Nice try, I thought. I opened my copy of “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” and watched a world of intrigue, betrayal, and love unfold before my eyes. Milan Kundera’s insights were so profound and his characters so moving that I could not have been more satisfied.

But the day only got better from there. A junior sitting next to me was struggling with a biology essay about photosynthesis. She asked repeatedly to talk to her teacher or to see a textbook—so I stepped in to help her with a topic I knew well. I took her through photolysis, Chlorophyll A, the electron transport chain, the thylakoid membrane, ATP and the Calvin cycle.

I guess this was an “academic issue” because the supervisor let us talk, but nothing could have made me happier. I helped someone understand an amazing natural phenomenon—and I made a new friend.

She came up to me a week later with a hug and a smile. She’d gotten an A+ on that paper and had an A in the class. I could tell she felt more confident and prepared to tackle her assignments.

Sometimes the most valuable educational experiences can’t happen in the structure of a normal school day. If there’s one thing the administration should realize, it’s that learning isn’t torture for all of us—just class.