Category Archives: Education
The Multidimensional Experience of (public) School
Every now and again, something really irks my gidjet. This post was one of them.
I didn’t intend to write a novel, but since it turned out so lengthy, I figured I’d share it here as well.
The original post can be read here:
@RAB
Let me share with you my ‘multidimensional experience of school’. Multidimensional indeed. It was like something out of the Twilight Zone.
It was sheer unadulterated HELL from Kindergarten to High School. I was relentlessly picked on, abused, both physically and emotionally, and tormented by my peers, for no reason that I could discern other than my family was less wealthy than many of the other families in town. We oft had ‘hand-me-down’ clothing and shoes instead of name brand designer clothing.
I was also too darn nice for my own good, and pretty much a pacifist. That all changed in 9th grade when I finally kicked the living shit out of one of the many bullies that had been tormenting me since 2nd grade. It got somewhat better after that. At least I was left alone. The word was out that I would put anyone that messed with me into the ER. It’s the only way you stop a bully. He’s not a ‘misunderstood’ child, he’s a tyrant in training, and needs to be reigned in before he ruins someone’s life forever. Kick a bully’s ass. The life you save may be his own.
The teachers, by and large, were useless and ineffective on all fronts.
My wife, also, was bullied mercilessly from grade school to jr. high.
My wife was home-schooled for a few years, as it was the only way to get her away from the kids who were relentlessly picking on her. It was physically dangerous for her to be there, as they just refused to leave her alone, and the time she was home-schooled was the best time of her life up until that point, educationally speaking. She learned much better that way than in a traditional ‘classroom’ environment.
Not all children learn the same way. Our conventional Prussian educational system has epically failed America on so many different fronts, to do more than breach the topic would be a momentous undertaking in the very least. Needless to say such ‘humanitarians’ as the Rockefellers were involved.
If you have not done so already, I highly suggest a book called ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’, by Robert Kiyosaki. If you are an educator, RAB, this will be quite an eye opener.
And yes, I do want my kid to turn into me. Or into my wife. Who wouldn’t. Isn’t this the point of reproduction? To make more of ourselves? I certainly didn’t bring a child into the world to make them into someone else, or a carbon copy pencil pushing ‘good employee’ mouth breather who cannot even comprehend basic principles of society and finance.
Nor do I want someone who graduates from high school and cannot even read beyond a basic 5th grade level. (How is that even possible these days?!?)
It seems to me that everyone’s perception is influenced by the experiences they have had.
As an educator, you seem to think the best place for a child, naturally, is a classroom. I think that’s a load of horseshit. I think that depends entirely upon the child, and which way they best learn. Every child is different. Some small few actually do well in a classroom style environment. Experience hath shewn that most do not.
Had I been home-schooled my experience would have been very markedly different than the one I was forced to endure.
The way I learn best, is just give me the materials and let me do it, then leave me alone. If I need help, I’ll ask. I learn anything immensely quickly, if I care enough to apply myself to it, and if it does not bore me to tears. It also helps if I’m not being punched in the back, or flicked in the back of my head whilst I am trying to learn something. See, it’s small things like that, which make all the difference.
All through school both my wife and I were held back and admonished to follow along at ‘the level of the class’. I taught myself to read at the age of 4 by asking questions of my older sisters and reading my father’s archaeological manuals. By the time I was 5 I could read them cover to cover. By the time I was 7, I had the reading and comprehension level of a college student. First and Second grade were very boring for me. I was picked on and teased mercilessly for being a ‘nerd’, and physically assaulted. The teachers did nothing. My parents did nothing. I was alone and trapped. Eventually, to ‘fit in’ more, I started to get things wrong intentionally, and this in turn morphed into an honest attitude of not giving a shit. So my grades went from all A’s, to C’s to D’s and finally to F’s, when I finally determined, that no, I really did not give a rat’s patootie about cooperating in this mind-frelling system of endless brainwashing and rote memorization that passes for education in this country.
I’m sure you think your experience as an ‘educator’ gives you a hand up or special insight.
I’d say that folks who have experienced your kind of ‘education’ for themselves would be infinitely more qualified to speak on this subject than you are. Or, rather, the opinion of someone who has been through it as a student, and not as a teacher. You can’t walk in your student’s shoes, and you obviously haven’t been a child for a very long time. School was quite different back then, and society was different as well. People were more respectful in general back then. And aye, I wasn’t alive back then, but I have it on good account. So sayeth my great aunt, who hit age 89 this year. Actually she says “Young people these days are just so damn disrespectful! They need a good hard ass busting, but their parents haven’t got the guts to do it! Heck, if they like, I’ll do it for them!”. She’s a firecracker that one. My grandmother’s youngest sister. I love that old woman. 🙂
But I digress,
At the end of the day, every teacher thinks they are in the right and ‘making a difference’. And for the sake of the poor bastards that are still stuck in government run ‘institutions’ (isn’t that a nice word?), I hope you are making a difference. At least you can tell yourself that and sleep better at night.
And maybe I’m being overly harsh here, but this topic is a bit of a trigger for me. I can almost guarantee that you’ve never been held down by a half dozen middle school aged boys and pummeled until you were bruised and puking. Maybe if you had been, your view of the public school system would be a bit different. It’s a bit hard to learn when you are in constant fear. Some people choose not to subject their own children to that environment, and at the very least, you need to respect that.
But for my own part, I can’t imagine anything more insane than a parent actually WILLINGLY subjecting their children to that kind of environment.
Clotilda, I salute your choice to home-school your child. He will thank you for it.
Wild Rantery! 