I had really bad marks in english and thought "there is no reason to learn this stupid language, I won't study economics". I started to actually learn english by watching english series and movies two years after I got out of school... Oh and I was always good at math but still hated the class because of the homework, that I never did.
Some teachers can make an exception to that rule, like the awesome philosophy teacher I got from 7th-9th grade.
It is interesting how much control we put in the hands of teachers who have rarely been outside of an institution. There are so many ways to learn that no teacher can target them all. This is why for one person the teacher is brilliant, for another the worst on earth. I tried to think that if one person can learn from the teacher, it is me that has the issue.
You got a philosophy teacher?
Yes :D, in germany if you do not take a religion course (catholicism or evangelism), you have to take a philosophy class.
One of the best classes I ever had. We had a speakers list that even the teacher had to honor if she wanted to take part in the discussion and we did really interesting stuff like analyzing "Das Fest der Völker" (Olympia 1936 Docu) for subliminal brain washing.
On that note Philosophy in colleague was very, very dissappointing.