Do you think that schools are okay?

[applejane11]

When I was in school, I remember absolutely hating school. I like learning. What I hated was the constant feeling of being in a prison, having no freedom. Having to sit for 7 hours a day and not speak. Having no say at all in most things. Constantly being controlled. I remember every morning, feeling dread when I woke up to go in.

I now actually work in a school in an admin position. Ive worked in lots of different companies. Now im in a school. I hear the teenagers say the same things all the time. They hate it, they feel like they are in prison, that it is awful, that they feel depressed every day, that all their young life is wasted. I also have to say, I definitely see school teachers abuse their power over the students. Not in a way that you could say is definitely abuse, but just in a way where you can see that they are really loving having power and control over the teenagers.

Do you think that schools are okay the way that they are? Teenagers don't have a lot of say in things or a lot of human rights, so it's adults that need to have the conversation about it.

3 of the main characters.

Dennis, Oz, and Neville

Not really in this case as other regions have their own equivalence eg duck around derby/stoke that hasnt migrated either

Ok It's a long time ago since I saw it, I don't remember much of it

Definitely in this case as I hear people using pet, love, lovely, sweet - loads of times in my Southern area

Hiya sweet! Hiya lovely! Hiya pet!

It's quite nice.

And the other 4000 secondary schools all allowed their students to come in Pe kits….

Pet was said multiple times and ingrained from childhood it was from the north.

Love/dear/sweetie are more generalised, pet is not

Maybe nice and how they say it in the north, but it isn’t how you’ve been using it. You’ve been using it to belittle. Haven’t you pet? Just like that!

North easterners would say howay pet

well bloblady.

Pet is versatile. It's whatever way you want to read it.

It’s boblady pet not bloblady.

Yes. I hated every single day of school. I don’t like being told what I can and can’t do.

Surely you’ve had to get past that now in the world of work?

And now that you’ve had to, do you look back and think you wasted your school years from not following the rules?

Unless you don’t work now, or you’re self-employed ofcourse?

I know. I was swiching up my insult style. Bloblady sounds funny.

You keep laughing about me being an admin.

Here's one of your classics

'Don't worry,Miss Admin's to the rescue !'

As you can laugh at other people, I'm sure you are able to take people laughing at you

I disliked it too. It was the mind numbing boredom of doing the same thing for years and years. Not subject matter. That changed. But the same thing of sitting in the same places, wearing the same clothes, not being able to make many decisions of my own. For years and years

Is calling me bloblady abuse?

Is it on par with patronising fucker?
It is fat shaming, so maybe 🤔

Is writing

'Don't worry Miss Admin's to the rescue' nice? That's what you did. you also put a laughing emoji to show that you were laughing at me

As you insulted me, I insulted you back. Don't give it out, if you can't take it back

I disagree. I think that pet is very general. i've heard it in London too

That’s true.

It is on par with patronising fucker though, both funny! 🤣 Well done OP. 👏

Thank you :)

it was the lack of agency that I find so hard to deal with. This all-powerful being who could tell me when to sit or stand, when to speak or be silent. I used to fantasise about turning the tables on them and torturing and killing them. Happy days.

yes! In my workplace now,I have more freedom than I did at school. I can go to the bathroom when I want to for example.

To say this when in an earlier post you say it is like a prison and they can't speak doesn't make sense.

But I agree with school (mainly secondary school) being a miserable part of so many children's lives. My nan, mother, myself and sibling and now my daughter have all had a miserable time at secondary school and find this time a black mark in our lives.

My mam & nan were not that academic so struggled with the whole schooling set up, they were also quiet, nice kids, who still to this day feel intimidated by others who they see as superior, they struggled with bullying.

Myself I was a naturally high achieving academic and found that part easy, but I wasn't like the others in my class. My friends were in the lowest sets, and I found no common ground with the academics, so found it very lonely. I was terrible at sports, but keen to give it a go, my teachers didn't find this enough and i was the forgotten miserable child being forced to stand in a field doing nothing for an hour each time. The popular sporty types got to chose the teams and possitions played and the rest of us didnt matter. I was actually a very fast runner and very good at catching, but the teacher never found out this as i was just placed in the distance every time as not friends with rhe popular kids. At the start of secondary, they did teach me to swim though, for which I will always be greatful.

My sibling, another natural academic but not into sports, was more confident but experienced bad bullying. Very strong minded and refused to conform, so they had hell of it but remained true to themselves. Now far exceeds the earnings of any 1 of the kids we went to school with. Has a house they could only dream of so had the last laugh

My daughter, unknown what type she is. She was very advanced in primary, but struggled both socially and academically at secondary. She had friends at primary but didn't maintain any at secondary. I moved her school once due to bullying hoping she would do better with a fresh start, but after a year there it was worse than before. If she couldn't find a subject easy or didn't like what she was asked to do she refused. She was a nightmare to get to school, crying and screaming at night that she dont want to go. She did end up with good enough GCSE to get to do A level, but me forcing her to go has severely damaged our relationship. Even in college for 1st year A level, with no bullying, she has refused to go, refused to enter the exam room ay the end of the year having a meltdown, and now has to start again next year. Dont know where this is going.

I dont know what the answer is, but there in just 1 family are different type of people, miserable for different reasons. Years of hell. But without those years we would be uneducated and in the case of me and my sibling, not have the good careers we have now. The government can't provide an education where 1 system suits all, we are so individual. But at the same time, if they let kids opt out, then those kids won't get equal opportunities

Edited to add as I saw your post above mine, it isn't right that kids are refused bathroom breaks. This is another thing my daughter struggled with

I felt like you do. We home educated our dc, who now say (having talked to a lot of their friends who feel similarly about school) that they cannot imagine sending their dc to school (they don't have any yet, we shall see!).

School is broken. It doesn't have to be, with AI it should be possible to completely rethink the way education is provided. But systems are sticky, so it will probably take far too long for things to change.