who is holdon?

i personally think holdon has just given up. he is willing to do homework for Stradlater but not for himself? maybe he does not want to do his own homeork because he does not mind failing, or maybe he does not do it himself because that would be "helping the system". i dont understand why though he would leave the note to Mr. Spencer saying what he knew about the egyptians. he tells him he does not mind if he flunks him because he is already flunking everything else. it almost sound like in his note he left to his teacher at the end of his essay like he was trying to get some sympaty from Mr. Spencer. however, if he wanted to "fight the power" and be a rebelous why would he leave the note in the first place?