School.

Started by pastelspectre November 2nd, 2015 3:20 PM
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  • 40 replies

pastelspectre

Memento Mori

Age 25
he/him
The Pacific Northwest
Seen 1 Week Ago
Posted 1 Week Ago
2,156 posts
13.1 Years
So I'm bad at starting threads. But, let me ask the important questions about one thing you either love, or hate (which I hate very much), school. If you love school, why? If you hate school, why? If you're no longer in school, did you love it or hate it? Did you enjoy your subjects and did it ever stress you out? Do/did you go to a public or private school or are you homeschooled?

For me, I hate it because it's very stressful and in my opinion unnecessary, but I'm almost 18 and my opinion doesn't matter much but oh well. I only enjoy one subject right now and it's English, because I'm a big reader and writer. It did stress me out big time, mainly because I got bullied a lot in elementary and middle school and it basically ended up in a lot of mentally scarring issues for me but I'm doing better now. I go to a private school, but I did go to public school for a majority of my school life. I'm a senior and will be graduating this year. Anyways uh, just answer these questions and hopefully a discussion will flow forth.

Limey-chan

Batzu

He/Him
Mt Moon
Seen May 27th, 2021
Posted October 31st, 2020
2,523 posts
14.2 Years
School was okay for me. I neither loved nor hated it, I wasn't unpopular, or particularly popular. I got on okay with the majority of my teachers, and for the first few years at least I worked reasonably hard.

Unfortunately, I messed around a lot in my final couple of years, so never reached my potential (or made it into college). That's my one big regret, really. If I could go back maybe 8 years or so, i'd do it again in a heartbeat.

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Altairis

take me ☆ take you

Female
database database
Seen December 29th, 2022
Posted October 5th, 2018
5,170 posts
10.9 Years
i would like it if some teachers weren't so unreasonable. i don't realistically have time to read 300 pages, write a paper on the book, and do the other reading just for that class in less than a week, even if i cut out my life, which i did. and cut out eating and sleeping, because i guess education is more important! and that's just one class! i have four more! i'm a freshman have mercy please.

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Nah

Age 30
she/her, they/them
Seen 10 Hours Ago
Posted 18 Hours Ago
15,643 posts
9.5 Years
i would like it if some teachers weren't so unreasonable. i don't realistically have time to read 300 pages, write a paper on the book, and do the other reading just for that class in less than a week, even if i cut out my life, which i did. and cut out eating and sleeping, because i guess education is more important! and that's just one class! i have four more! i'm a freshman have mercy please.
I've always felt that some teachers and professors are completely unaware of the fact or somehow don't get that students do other things in their lives other than their class. They be like "hey guys let's take a field trip to place you've never been to before and I'm not gonna provide transportation and we're gonna do it on a weekday! and did i mention that I'm not gonna be there either?!"<----literally what happened to my sister a month ago.

.....at least I don't have to put up with that **** anymore.
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Pave Low

Male
London
Seen 6 Days Ago
Posted December 15th, 2022
3,326 posts
14.8 Years
I've always felt as if the teachers were the reason why I hated or liked a subject. If there was no enthusiasm, emotion, passion, then I would be bored and at the end of lesson I would leave just wanting to do something else as quickly as I could. Having said that, subjects like maths and physics I've always found interesting no matter who was teaching me, the same can be said for history too.


Basically, yeah.

Age 28
Female
Scotland
Seen May 16th, 2017
Posted January 7th, 2017
283 posts
7.6 Years
I left school when I was 15, I hated it, was bullied since I started high school (at 11) as soon as I done the basic exams that allow you to get a job I left. it was a public school. I was always shy but high school completely wiped me of any confidence I had, still struggle with social situations to this day

As for subjects the only 2 I done okay at were English and Maths because I had too. The others I pretty much stopped going too but I hated it so much.
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Kanzler

naughty biscotti

Male
Toronto
Seen April 22nd, 2022
Posted March 11th, 2022
5,957 posts
14.8 Years
On balance, I like school. I'm pretty alright at it, although I could definitely work on my time-management and concentration skills. I think school is good for most people because it gives them a structured environment that helps give them direction. Don't get me wrong, there are people who are truly stifled by such an environment and would do better if they were completely free, but there are other people would find it even more difficult to adjust to less structured environments, which is what we usually find in the real world, compared to school anyways. Think of school as an incubation chamber where you can build your skills and aptitudes with some semblance of a safety net because nobody cares about you in the real world.

As for bullying and social troubles, all I have to say is that kids can be incredibly cruel. But so can adults, and adults can hold real power.

Nolafus

Aspiring something

Age 27
Male
Lost in thought... again
Seen March 3rd, 2018
Posted March 11th, 2017
5,722 posts
10.9 Years
School was just all over the place. The only thing that made it really worth it was band and my after school clubs and sports teams. They were the only thing that made going each day worth it. I have a giant rant about how schools transform everyone into cookie cutter kids so they can grow into cookie cutter adults to live their cookie cutter lives, so there's the short version, haha.

I don't get all of the requirements that they force on kids, as not everyone is going to be good at those required classes. School does a lot of good, but it's an extremely flawed system that needs a complete overhaul.
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Percy

Male
Asia
Seen December 24th, 2021
Posted June 19th, 2021
3,045 posts
8.7 Years
Its okay for me. Sometimes, it is stressful. But, no pain no gain, eh? And I got to kill my time by doing something educational :D
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Sonata

Don't let me disappear

Age 27
Male
Indiana
Seen 1 Hour Ago
Posted March 25th, 2023
13,619 posts
10.2 Years
School was school. The last year or two of it I really got lazy and ended up with some D's and F's. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it. It was just another thing that I had to do. It wasn't hard or stressful, it was just boring. I hated getting up in the morning and would often stroll in hours later than I should have without a care in the world. I passed most of my classes with C's or B's. I never really did any of the schoolwork and hung on by passing the tests and completing the occasional project that I didn't deem to be too intrusive on what I actually wanted to do which was sit around the house being lazy. Now that I'm out of it I can't help but miss it and the easier times that it symbolized, but I dread the thought of having to go back in a year or two once I've decided what I'm doing with my life.

SeleneHime

The pen may be mightier than the sword, but I'll take both just to be sure.

Age 28
Female
Somewhere in my mind ...
Seen January 28th, 2018
Posted November 18th, 2017
124 posts
12.3 Years
Looking at the above posts, I'm glad that I was homeschooled for the majority of my education. Public school bit me when I was little (I'm actually 50% deaf, so even though I qualified for the advanced program they tried repeatedly to shunt me into the "resource" program), so I was allowed to go at my own pace after we switched and ended up graduating highschool at sixteen. I'm currently in college as a medical student - going to be a physical therapist - but while I really enjoy sciences, I also want to be able to focus on my writing once I finish school and build up an audience. So, yeah, favorite subjects: English, sciences, and history.

myystogan

HIVEMIND DANCEFLOOR GOD

GMT-6/CST
Seen May 1st, 2021
Posted March 16th, 2016
176 posts
7.6 Years
I dislike school. It's not that much of a bother to me, since I don't get stressed easily and I can always get my work done on time, but I feel like the majority of what I'm learning right now won't be useful for me in the future. It makes me think about how much better the lives of students would be if school was catered to every individual's career prospects/needs.

Are subjects like math, science, social studies good to know? Yes.
But are they absolutely necessary for everyone? I don't think so.
Not everyone wants to be a teacher or college professor when they grow up, but that's exactly what the elementary/middle/high school curriculum right now manufactures.
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I didn't mind school honestly, and I found most of the subject material interesting...it was the people I had problems with. School wouldn't have been half as stressful for me if I hadn't of been stuck in classes all day long with angst-ridden, hormone-charged teenagers who seemed hell-bent on taking their frustration at life in general out on me...when I was in a similar state and in no way capable of coping with them AND the workload I had.

Kanzler

naughty biscotti

Male
Toronto
Seen April 22nd, 2022
Posted March 11th, 2022
5,957 posts
14.8 Years
I dislike school. It's not that much of a bother to me, since I don't get stressed easily and I can always get my work done on time, but I feel like the majority of what I'm learning right now won't be useful for me in the future. It makes me think about how much better the lives of students would be if school was catered to every individual's career prospects/needs.

Are subjects like math, science, social studies good to know? Yes.
But are they absolutely necessary for everyone? I don't think so.

Not everyone wants to be a teacher or college professor when they grow up, but that's exactly what the elementary/middle/high school curriculum right now manufactures.
I believe that math, science, and social studies are necessary for everybody.

Mathematical literacy is important if you want to be in control of your finances, preparing for retirement, saving up, juggling multiple liabilities (like mortgages, bills, life expenses). It's much better to plan ahead than deal with finances every time you have to pay. Also learning geometry helps you with various arts and crafts. I've made plushies using some of my math skills.

The study of science is important to develop an understanding of how science works, as well as how the natural world works. A lot of shifty businessmen rely on people's poor understanding for profit, selling them useless things with an appeal to scientific technologies. Learning science is good for certain hobbies, such as gardening. A friend of mine is making his own perfumes and colognes based on high school chemistry skills - they smell great and he makes them for a fraction of the cost that you'd pay to buy such a perfume in-store.

Social studies is very important for a socially-engaged person. You study civics to learn how the government works, your place in it, and how you can be involved in that. Sociology is important to understand the inequalities in society and helps you develop empathy. Anthropology enables to to better understand different cultures and different people. History might be less important to the average person, but I think it's important that we understand where we come from and where we are going. We all live in one society or another, and even though it's one's choice to engage with it or not, I think it's better if more people participate. I don't think that reading opinions on social media cuts it - I think it's much better if somebody has the basic understanding to deal with opinions in a critical way.

Many of the reasons I mentioned aren't individually necessary. But together, they contribute to your human potential - your ability to understand, find meaning in life, and quite simply do things. You don't have to make perfume or plushies, or garden, or participate in the political process, or take care to understand your own nutrition, or work out, but there are people who want to and find great meaning in those activities. Learning all those different subjects gives you the foundation for exploring those activities.

Furthermore, the workforce of today is very different from the workforce of decades ago. Jobs are no longer as stable, and careers are much more dynamic, at no fault of the individual. It's the economy and society we live in. Most people don't know what they want to do graduating from high school, and most people change their career plans or even their entire careers during their lives. To cater one's schooling to each individual's career prospects would be setting a lot of people up for failure, because career prospects are just prospects - they might come true, they might not.

noa

sleeping cutie

Age 30
Female
Seattle
Seen November 29th, 2020
Posted July 20th, 2020
5,474 posts
7.6 Years
School was as good as school could get for me. (Spoiler: No one has perfect, sparkling school days.) I had my friends, I had my subjects that I liked... And I went to a small private school so we were closely knit. (That of course was irritating at times, as there was no place to really be alone) I suffered through the things that every high schooler suffers through really: teasing (was never really 'bullied'), isolation, a general feeling of not knowing what you want to do with your life... But I wouldn't say I had a bad time.

College though... That is an entirely different ball time. You'll be amazed with how much TIME you have. (Granted most of it goes to homework but...) Your school life becomes customizable and that's what I loved about it.

myystogan

HIVEMIND DANCEFLOOR GOD

GMT-6/CST
Seen May 1st, 2021
Posted March 16th, 2016
176 posts
7.6 Years
-snip-
Wow, thanks for the detailed reply. It was an interesting read, as I hadn't thought about things that way at all. Looking back, my bias is quite evident in my previous post. Admittedly, my indifference for subjects such as math, social studies, and science is pretty obvious. I had always disliked them the most because I always thought they weren't necessary, and that I wouldn't need them in the future. I see that's a flaw in thinking on my part, haha. You definitely gave me something to re-evaluate. I overlooked the fact that multiple things (including the school subjects being taught today) contribute to an individual's potential, as you pointed out.

As for catering to career prospects, my main opinion is "let students learn things they're passionate about too, on a similar scale as students are expected to know the main subjects". So I immediately thought "cater to careers", because naturally students will want to pursue something that they can get easily immersed in.
Needless to say, I really could've worded this better, haha.

So I think schools should be more flexible in terms of the subjects being taught, and promote more creativity. Every education system has the same hierarchy of subjects, for example. At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and at the bottom is... everything else. So there aren't many education systems, if any at all, that teach things like dance, theater, programming, etc the same way students are taught subjects like math. Why? How can people determine which subjects are more important than others, and which ones are the most enriching? Of course, the subjects in the current curriculum are pretty important, but so are other possible subjects that are often overlooked in favor of the major ones, even though they contribute to any individual's overall potential as well. The task should be to educate a student's entire being, so they can face the future, and I don't think this is achieved simply by testing them on subjects related to one idea of academic ability for the majority of their school life.
So yeah, just my 2 cents. Hope I didn't go too off-topic :-x
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Nah

Age 30
she/her, they/them
Seen 10 Hours Ago
Posted 18 Hours Ago
15,643 posts
9.5 Years
~things I wish the school system did~
I do agree with you for the most part, and I don't know how the Canadian education system is, but the US school system doesn't really do any of that unfortunately, at least in my experience and from what else I've heard.
Nah ンン
“No, I... I have to be strong. Everyone expects me to."

maccrash

foggy notion

Age 24
Male
Massachusetts
Seen October 7th, 2021
Posted April 17th, 2017
3,583 posts
9.2 Years
it's not so much that I like school, per se, but the teenage experience is so much fun for me so I'm relishing that while I can. it's so strange to me that I'm currently in my last year of grade school education. Where'd The Time Go
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Sothis

Will this hand destroy you?

She/her
Firene
Seen 11 Hours Ago
Posted 14 Hours Ago
17,837 posts
9.9 Years
I'm out of school, but I didn't like it because I was heavily bullied. This affected my ability to really learn and pay attention so I didn't do well in school either. There wasn't really a plus side of it because I had no friends either.

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Kanzler

naughty biscotti

Male
Toronto
Seen April 22nd, 2022
Posted March 11th, 2022
5,957 posts
14.8 Years
Wow, thanks for the detailed reply. It was an interesting read, as I hadn't thought about things that way at all. Looking back, my bias is quite evident in my previous post. Admittedly, my indifference for subjects such as math, social studies, and science is pretty obvious. I had always disliked them the most because I always thought they weren't necessary, and that I wouldn't need them in the future. I see that's a flaw in thinking on my part, haha. You definitely gave me something to re-evaluate. I overlooked the fact that multiple things (including the school subjects being taught today) contribute to an individual's potential, as you pointed out.

As for catering to career prospects, my main opinion is "let students learn things they're passionate about too, on a similar scale as students are expected to know the main subjects". So I immediately thought "cater to careers", because naturally students will want to pursue something that they can get easily immersed in.
Needless to say, I really could've worded this better, haha.

So I think schools should be more flexible in terms of the subjects being taught, and promote more creativity. Every education system has the same hierarchy of subjects, for example. At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and at the bottom is... everything else. So there aren't many education systems, if any at all, that teach things like dance, theater, programming, etc the same way students are taught subjects like math. Why? How can people determine which subjects are more important than others, and which ones are the most enriching? Of course, the subjects in the current curriculum are pretty important, but so are other possible subjects that are often overlooked in favor of the major ones, even though they contribute to any individual's overall potential as well. The task should be to educate a student's entire being, so they can face the future, and I don't think this is achieved simply by testing them on subjects related to one idea of academic ability for the majority of their school life.
So yeah, just my 2 cents. Hope I didn't go too off-topic :-x
I do agree with you for the most part, and I don't know how the Canadian education system is, but the US school system doesn't really do any of that unfortunately, at least in my experience and from what else I've heard.
My experience in the local district school board is as follows. In high school some of your courses are mandatory and others are electives - and the number of mandatory courses decreases with each grade. In our system we take 8 courses a year.

In Grade 9 you must take English, Math, French (because bilingual Canada), Science, Health & Phys. Ed, Geography, and an Arts course - leaving only one elective.

In Grade 10 you must take English, Math, Science, History and two half-courses - Civics and Career Studies, leaving three electives.

In Grade 11 you must take English and Math, and in Grade 12 only English is necessary.

In addition to these requirements you also need one more credit from each of these 3 groups: social sciences and humanities (includes language courses, philosophy, law, anthro etc.), business and arts, and science and tech. These can be taken in any year.

I think it's a good balance because much of the breadth of mandatory courses are taken in the first two grades of high school, meaning that they don't need to be studied at such a high level and they won't affect your grades in 11 and 12, which are far more important. English is that one course that you have to take to grade 12 to be a literate, critical thinking citizen. Studying Math until Grade 11 is also a good balance - it teaches you important skills, but it's also true that most people don't need further study in that department. Also, having mandatory course groups requires the student to be well-rounded, but allows them the benefit of choosing what they want to study and at what level. For example, you might not be a science person, so you can pick workshop courses and learn how to use machines or work on cars. You might be sick of language courses and are passionate about global issues so you take the course on world issues instead of creative writing.

I agree that students should learn what they're passionate about, but I don't think they should have complete control over their curriculum because we want people to be well-rounded to an extent. Students are also assessed in terms of their 1) knowledge and understanding, 2) thinking and investigation (problem-solving), 3) communication, and 4) application to other, maybe outside-of-classroom contexts. The teachers, at least in my experience, make the mark breakdown very clear so you're constantly aware of developing your aptitudes in all 4 fields. One way or another, you will be assessed in all four categories, whether through exams, assignments (generally where a lot of assessment of application takes place, or presentations (a big source for communication assessments). I think this is also part of the system that encourages a well-rounded education that doesn't place the entire focus of education on knowledge and facts, instead emphasizing your ability to think critically and solve problems, communicate, and apply the stuff you're learning to the big wide world.

I'm not sure how the US system works, so I can't comment on that. I do know that each state has some leeway in setting standards and approaches, and each school board to some extent beyond that. I would be surprised if they didn't assess students in those four categories, though, because they seem essential to building, well, essential skills as well as a well-rounded understanding of the material being taught.

It's also such a shame that bullying is so significant in so many student's lives. Everybody knows that enjoying an activity makes it easier, and disliking an activity makes it harder. Bullying, in this way, is incredibly stupid because it has nothing to do with learning or understanding! and yet it undeservedly impacts students' academic performance.

I wanted to post a dissenting opinion because I felt that nobody should read this thread and have a poorer opinion of school because of it. That would be perverse - while we should criticize the schooling institution and the school system where appropriate, that shouldn't negatively impact our impression of it to the point that we're less motivated to do well. I truly feel that if you read enough opinions on how school is useless or miserable or difficult, you will become less motivated. We're social creatures, we can't help being affected by others' opinions. But hate it or love it, it's important that you give your all in school and do the best you can, because how you do on your education will set you up for success or failure later in life.

I could go on about how motivation and the effort you put in is to an extent independent of how well you do and therefore should be valued for its own sake, but that could be another post.

Wicked3DS

Until the very end.

Age 31
Male
New Jersey
Seen February 24th, 2022
Posted October 5th, 2021
4,592 posts
9.7 Years
I didn't mind school that much, but I definitely wish I took advantage of my opportunities there. I could've worked harder and got better grades, which may have turned into some scholarships and possibly some better jobs for me now than what I'm doing.

Cariad

world.search(you);

Age 23
Seen 2 Days Ago
Posted May 12th, 2020
1,347 posts
12 Years
i'm disabled mentally, with a social disability and a learning disability so school is tough for me. in my primary school education i had very little social contact and was bullied heavily but now i'm in high school i'm fine on the social front. the only good thing about school for me is the chance to see my friends and hang out with others. that's about it.

apart from that, school is hell. most of the time i literally cannot do the work being asked of me, and i require a great deal of help in most subjects. however since my ability to communicate with others is lacking, teachers often get angry at me and refuse to work with me, etc. due to another factor of my mental health my time management is bad so ... basically i get hated by all the teachers and i don't do well in tests and my grades are bad.

idc though as long as i'm happy and have ANY job once i leave. i'm not aiming to be some sort of academic genius or anything lol

Evening

Non-binary
(Blank)
Seen December 1st, 2021
Posted February 5th, 2016
808 posts
9.4 Years
I'm fine with school, and because of that I don't take it very seriously. I found out that what I really hated was waking up for school.

Palamon

Silence is Purple.

Age 26
he/him
Snezhnaya, Teyvat.
Seen 35 Minutes Ago
Posted 1 Day Ago
7,784 posts
14.3 Years
School? Lol, I'm not in school anymore. But when I was, I loved it, and now I miss it because I'm out of it. I could have continued, but I've got a few ~disabilities~ that make some things hard to learn. =/
Seen 1 Day Ago
Posted February 26th, 2019
507 posts
7.5 Years
I hate a school with a passion. That useless institution sucks ups 7 hours of my day and more with homework. For 7 hours I have to put up with obnoxious teenagers, incompetent teachers, unwanted stress, and a lack of freedom. If I actually cared about learning that information I could look it up online without the stress of homework and exams and learn at a rate many times that of school. However, I only require the basics so such superfluous knowledge goes to waste anyways. In the current state of society, a college degree is necessary if you want a decent job however it doesn't guarantee it. I'm currently in high school so there is many years left in my educational career (a bachelor's won't even be enough by the time I obtain it).
As for the subjects....
Math - Easy mostly because the reviews are the same thing as the tests but with different numbers.
Science - Biology was a memorization fest. Never cared about Chemistry but our teacher never assigned nor graded anything. Currently in Physics.
English - BS It's amazing how English majors decide what is considered good writing and literature of literary merit. I thought reading was about entertaining yourself with good book, not analyzing pointless symbolism and themes which may or may not be there. I just wish people would treat English as a method of communication, not as a subject.
History- Interesting but overall useless. I don't regret learning some of it.