Did you never want to leave School?

[beccabear67]

I left school multiple times from ages 14 to 17... did parts of one grade over three or four years. As an adult I made a couple of attempts to finish but pressures got to me and I left again twice. I love learning and reading but I always hated school. I missed a lot of it when I was little due to sickness. I'd like to go to a good school with things I could have some self-direction in. I did one University extension course once but didn't finish that either.

There should be more recognition of genuine skill and intelligence over gaining some piece of paper showing your bottom was in a seat every day and your hand or mouth returned the expected answer to questions.

[George 1978]

Amazing that I have only come across this thread... Better late than never:

The answer to the question to which the title of this thread asks was: no, I have always wanted to leave school. The main problem was that education should both be a privilege and a positive influence to those involved. I think that if one has such a bad time at school just like I did, it can put you off further education and wanting to study further. The thought of college made me think of it being "another school", and it shouldn't be like this; they should be no "de ja vu" in young people's education - no obstacles should be in the way of achieving one's potential. Spending hours at Nottingham Central Library was to me a good way of learning after I had left the system. Education should be one's friend in life; a way of making life easier when it comes to knowledge, success, and finance, although from a schooling perspective, it can be one's foe as well - it shouldn't be like that.

Saying that, the school actually left us when it closed down a year later.

[80sChav]

Re: Did you never want to leave School?

A decent teacher does make a big difference. But, even a decent teacher does not make it enjoyable if they have no time for you. This reminds me of a certain music teacher who had no time for pupils who were not in the top classes. This was also coupled to a deep hatred for modern music IE. Pop music, Rock'n'roll ETC. He certainly knew his subject, but could alienate anybody in the class.

Another one was a certain French teacher. Most took a deep hatred to him by the end of the first ever lesson with him. He was well known for giving somebody a clout, always a boy, but never ever a girl. He was down right pig-headed about homework. He had no interest if you had no time to do it. Regardless of the reason why you had not done the homework, you still had detention. He was quite frightening when you were aged 11. The world turns..... By the time you were 15...... Several of us had been involved with a head on confrontation with him, this would sometimes end up with your parents having a meeting at the school. Thanks to this raving idiot, many children who were very good at French, dropped it after the first year. Him being the reason. He was also one of the reasons why I had a deep hatred for the comprehensive school I went to.

Your French Teacher sounds like my French Teacher and another one who taught either French or Spanish Marc! The main Teacher in question for French was a lady (who I'll call Mrs G) and she gave detention for just having a joke in lessons at 11/12 years of age (which she obviously never appreciated how to find a medium between firm and fair) especially as it was Xmas too and we was all in high-jinx mode and she gave me a detention - which I never attended which I got out of it on principle, by saying I'd not done much wrong before and more than me was involved - rightly or wrongly

It is true no doubts what they say about a Teacher making the Subject - for me I had good Art and Home Economics Teachers, a well as Geography (all my fave subjects) and a Science Teacher as a Form Tutor who contrary to what might be imagined ... never tried to ramble on about the Subject!


80sChav

[marc]

Re: Did you never want to leave School?

A decent teacher does make a big difference. But, even a decent teacher does not make it enjoyable if they have no time for you. This reminds me of a certain music teacher who had no time for pupils who were not in the top classes. This was also coupled to a deep hatred for modern music IE. Pop music, Rock'n'roll ETC. He certainly knew his subject, but could alienate anybody in the class.

Another one was a certain French teacher. Most took a deep hatred to him by the end of the first ever lesson with him. He was well known for giving somebody a clout, always a boy, but never ever a girl. He was down right pig-headed about homework. He had no interest if you had no time to do it. Regardless of the reason why you had not done the homework, you still had detention. He was quite frightening when you were aged 11. The world turns..... By the time you were 15...... Several of us had been involved with a head on confrontation with him, this would sometimes end up with your parents having a meeting at the school. Thanks to this raving idiot, many children who were very good at French, dropped it after the first year. Him being the reason. He was also one of the reasons why I had a deep hatred for the comprehensive school I went to.

[Arran]

Re: Did you never want to leave School?

I think there is very much truth in that having decent teachers is a prominent factor in whether kids enjoy a certain subject or even school in general but it isn't the only factor. The school environment and the other kids play a very large part as well.

More often than not, high academic ability kids enjoy school less than those of lower ability because of crushing boredom resulting from having to do work that is beneath their intellectual capability where they aren't learning anything they don't already know. Schools teach the National Curriculum according to that for the year group. Extra help is available for kids that are behind academically but accelerated learning isn't available for high ability kids.

[Richard1978]

Re: Did you never want to leave School?

Like I mentioned before having the right teachers was very hit & miss even at primary school.

In my last year in primary school my teacher went on maternity leave after a term & the teacher we had afterwards was more used to younger children so it was a rocky road, especially as the other class in the year always seemed to be doing more interesting work.

[Arran]

Re: Did you never want to leave School?

My mother has few good memories of primary school as it was so dull and tedious but she found secondary school more enjoyable because it had proper lessons that were interesting and teachers that were more knowledgeable than those from primary. The only O Level subject she wasn't too keen on was English literature because it was so time consuming and she couldn't see the relevance of the subject to the real world or employment.

Despite the educational reforms in the intervening years, I didn't particularly enjoy either primary or secondary school. IMO anybody who says that school is the best days of your life is pathological liar. My favourite subjects were maths and science. I loved using the computers at primary but IT lessons were very basic. I really wish that the recently introduced computer science GCSE was around when I was in secondary rather than the trivial ICT GCSE that is the modern day equivalent of the typing and office skills course that schools offered in the 1960s and 70s.

I didn't find teachers very supportive or helpful in primary as they perceived me as a wayward problem child and secondary was infested with thugs. The only teachers I had respect for were those who knew their subject and could relate well with the kids and were helpful. My Y7 maths teacher probably didn't have an A Level in maths because she had never heard of complex numbers. I had food tech teacher who was a right old bossy cow and overreacted to all sorts of minor trivial things. She was allegedly good with the kids taking the GCSE but she wasn't fit to teach Y7.

[fynger]

Re: Did you never want to leave School?

yep

[Richard1978]

Re: Did you never want to leave School?

I'm seemed to have a run of bad luck with decent teachers having time off due to illness & having supply teachers to fill in, often not doing such a good job.

My history teachers did this 2 years running, along with my English teacher when I was getting ready for my GCSEs.

[Littlelen]

Re: Did you never want to leave School?

In some ways some of my teachers where like that, thinking they could bully pupils into learning things rather than explaining things clearly in the first place. If you weren't already good at the subject you wern't worth bothering with seemed to be attitude from some.

Lucky for me some teachers made lessons something to look forward to.

I was glad to have my English teacher who recognised early on that I needed more stimulation than the curriculum was offering. She gave me of mice and men and to kill a mockingbird to read in first year then later on when she became my actual teacher and not just my form teacher we did harper Lee for our GCSE,s. I completely failed maths and got a U and was mortified. My teacher had spent 3 years using smile cards with a matrix we were given directing us to the appropriate worksheet which we got from the filing cabinet ourselves, were trusted to complete then mark ourselves from an answers reference. The teacher signed off the matrix to say he'd seen them and you were given a new one. Errrrmm?...anyone else familiar with SMILE?

In short I was bored and only had respect for teachers who seemed to have knowledge of their subject, not the ones who were history teachers covering science lessons as well by giving us pictures to colour in while they twiddled a pen and drank coffee.

It's a school of excellence now apparently and I know of two teachers still there from my day so there must have been gudd'uns.

[Richard1978]

Re: Did you never want to leave School?

We were a bit tragic as a school year to start off having had a weird mix of old school teachers who were as bored with teaching as we were with them. They should have retired when they realised they hated kids. A lot of them still believed in clipping kids and throwing blackboard rubbers and didn't realise rules applied to them as well as us. This was the early 90s too! None of our high school year gelled much and we also got a really unfortunate merger with a local school half way through our GCSE,s which just added to the mess. Still, some us did okay and as long as I never have to go back and do any of it again I'm happy.

In some ways some of my teachers where like that, thinking they could bully pupils into learning things rather than explaining things clearly in the first place. If you weren't already good at the subject you wern't worth bothering with seemed to be attitude from some.

Lucky for me some teachers made lessons something to look forward to.

[Littlelen]

Re: Did you never want to leave School?

Are sports and the social side of school the main defining factors whether adults look back to their school days of being a happy or unhappy time of their life? What about kids who are academically inclined but do not enjoy the social aspects of school or the school environment or PE lessons?

We were a bit tragic as a school year to start off having had a weird mix of old school teachers who were as bored with teaching as we were with them. They should have retired when they realised they hated kids. A lot of them still believed in clipping kids and throwing blackboard rubbers and didn't realise rules applied to them as well as us. This was the early 90s too! None of our high school year gelled much and we also got a really unfortunate merger with a local school half way through our GCSE,s which just added to the mess. Still, some us did okay and as long as I never have to go back and do any of it again I'm happy.

[Littlelen]

Re: Did you never want to leave School?

Bit later on than you. Was 92 onwards till they closed. I worked there for a week (best not go into that one) but settled back down in school for year 5 and left in 1994 with some decent grades and a fantastic score on bubble bobble ha!

[havasack]

Re: Did you never want to leave School?

I loved primary school but I hated high school with a passion! Some of the kids in our school were monsters to each other. I can't say I made things easy for my teachers. I was a naughty little s@!t at the best of times back then. Surprisingly I did well in GCSE,s despite going AWOL (wagging at the Spanish city) for most of 4th year. I wouldn't do high school again but I wouldn't change it either. I married my best friend a month ago and going to school together played its part in our story.

Spanish city eh ? When was this as I was a regular there summer night times 1981-83 from the west end.

[havasack]

Re: Did you never want to leave School?

Are sports and the social side of school the main defining factors whether adults look back to their school days of being a happy or unhappy time of their life? What about kids who are academically inclined but do not enjoy the social aspects of school or the school environment or PE lessons?

Can't say for others but at my middle school everyone seemed to get on, sports inclined or not, more so due to everyone knowing everyone else pretty well ad had known them mostly since 5yrs old. Just about all 350-400 kids in that school came from about half a square mile. High school was different but to be honest I didn't take much notice.