<p>go with your heart, hands down. A decade from now you will have warm memories from the plays you were involved in. A decade after HS nobody remembers calculus proofs and gushes to their friends "remember that time we integrated to find the area under than trapezoid?".</p>
<p>Your mom is probably right that acting is not a very lucrative career; thousands try, not many succeed. But there are many levels to be involved in acting, many people find enjoyment in community theater and the like as a hobby. </p>
<p>There is a really good article about how to approach making decisions about your future; it's called "Are You Deciding on Purpose" and its at <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/online/13/ldrplus.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.fastcompany.com/online/13/ldrplus.html</a></p>
<p>It sounds like there's a bigger conflict here than just the AP class.You might want to have some conversations with mom now about how acting is going to fit into your college plans or else you might find that your parents use the power of the purse to limit what you do in college (eg. forbid you to minor in acting, or take part in plays, etc) or even if you can use acting as part of your college selection process.</p>
<p>And BTW does this teacher really want what's best for you, or what's best for him (another good student in the class)? Maybe he's gods gift to the calculus-teaching world and can do a better job than VHS, but I'm not so sure.</p>