Hear me out, even though, this seems like an incredibly stupid question. Should I drop my English 101 class?

If you're unhappy in the class and getting Cs, I would say yes, go ahead and drop down to a regular English class. If you really are an excellent writer, you can pass out of English 101 at most colleges anyway if you get a 4 or 5 on the the AP English (language/writing, not literature) exam. You should be able to sign up for the exam even if you don't take AP English--you'll just have to pay for it yourself. That being said, be prepared for some harsh criticism on your writing in college and some Cs on papers your freshman year, at least on first drafts. It's par for the course--a lot of students go through this rude awakening. Most high school teachers will tell you you're a genius if you can use complete sentences because probably a good half of their students struggle to do even that. Smart students can write a semi-coherent, grammatically correct essay by the end of their freshman year, and a similar quality of work will get them an A as a senior. If you get As for writing "well enough," you don't have to learn to write well, and that's the problem college professors face with freshmen. Some profs are very patient in bringing the freshmen up to speed in their writing and others have a more tough-love kind of approach. From their perspective, it can be frustrating to have students come in who've always been given As and told their writing is great and who get very upset to be told otherwise and resist constructive criticism. So if he's getting that kind of vibe from you, that might explain his reaction to you even though it doesn't justify it. And maybe he doesn't like teaching high school cross-enrolled students for just that reason and is trying to chase you out of the class. He is being a d-bag in singling you out like that. I think you have good reason to drop and start fresh in college. Those 3-4 credits are not worth the humiliation and stress. But just remember that just turning in all the work isn't enough to get an A in college--profs have higher standards and want for you to learn from your mistakes, and for writing especially, that will mean being flexible about unlearning some of what you learned in high school. If you find in college that you're regularly doing poorly on written assignments, most colleges have a writing center where you can get extra help on your writing. They exist precisely because many freshmen are not well prepared for college writing standards and because profs don't have time to tutor all their students outside class. Good luck!

Cyn, I hate to say this, because professional people often have this protective attitude towards each other and if my colleagues knew that I do not condone the games they play and actually expose them, I'd probably be blacklisted. Some have figured it out, and did what they could to get me off their campuses. A large number of public school teachers allow their character flaws to dictate how they behave as educators. This ranges from mere jealousy to outright flaunting of morality. In this case it sounds like he has an ego problem. I'm not a psychologist, nor do I want to dig into his psyche to try to figure out what's driving this, but I had a similar experience when I was doing my teacher internship. Two of the teachers were married to each other (the male half was gay and I don't know if his wife knew, but if she did, it may have contributed to the heart attack she had while I was there) and one was an uptight brown noser. The uptight one had me removed from her classroom after the 1st 3 weeks; she simply did not want me in there. She was not teaching the students anything the new state curriculum required, but what they produced looked good and made the principal happy. I naively made the mistake of suggesting lessons that included new curriculum (part of internship is teaching a lesson). The other two gave me a C. This was after I was left alone with the high school teacher's students for most of the semester (something you do not do with interns). On inquiring of his students, I learned that their project for the entire last semester of the year before had consisted of tanning a deer hide (from one he had shot in the fall; this was an Art class). I implemented the curriculum from the new state law 1017, also did his in school suspension duties, and talked a kid who was having to live in his car (due to his mom's live in boyfriend) out of quitting in the last semester of his senior year. That was the thanks I got. My university coordinating professor gave me an A, or I would've not even gotten a high enough average to even look like a teacher. Cs hurt, and I did not remember I could've contested what they gave me, because I was struggling to just survive at this point (long abuse/divorce story). Earlier (in my Junior year) I did contest an F (a professor had given me even after I had completed the work) and was given a B after the dean, according to the professor's comment, had given him "open heart surgery". I was told by a friend who had taken the same class with him 3 times (under similar circumstances) the reason professors do this is to keep their class load up- they get paid per class they teach, but this isn't the case with public school teachers. Oh, and I had a teacher in high school who was only a sub, my work (Home Economics) was better than any other student's, but she gave me a C for my last semester in school (I quit in the middle of my senior year). This would've been the first time I would've made the B Honor Roll. I was knocking myself out for my mom who was dying of cancer and I had a tough time from the 7th grade until I dropped out in the middle of the 11th grade. This sub was a local country store owner's wife and she knew all about my mom, but this is what she did to me. Handle this how you want, but I think I would drop the class.

Have you actually talked to him about the grades you've been getting - not from an accusatory standpoint, but in an effort to understand what he thinks you need to improve? It may be that he is just biased for whatever reason, but it might be that he's being hard on you because there are areas where you need help in order to raise your work to college-level standards - and if that's the case, you need to try and be open to his criticism and work to adapt. Otherwise, he may not turn out to be the only professor you have this issue with in college.