Evening classes helping me

[OldMotherH]

I had a tough time myself at school - plenty of hard proof most teachers didn't like me, even though I was a swat, and never made good friends. Give a dog a bad name and so on.

Was finding it hard to be positive about school experience for my kids. Then I discovered that attending evening classes gave me a great chance to 'get it right'. I always make a point of meeting the teacher before signing on dotted line and choosing course only if I think I'll like teacher. What I take away from course in terms of its actual content is just a bonus - my real agenda is just being a well-accepted member of the class. Recommend trying this to anyone who felt they were labelled as unteachable at school and wants to break cycle so their children don't pick up on their bad vibes.

OldMotherH my education was at evening classes for A Levels as I didn't do well at school, so I completely agree with you! There is plenty of opportunity to pick up your education as an adult. What classes are you doing?

Oh lots. Book keeping, arty stuff, public speaking.

Glad to hear you got your exams at evening class. It's not just that I didn't do well academically. It's that I've managed to find a way of doing a kind of 'Groundhog Day' and get good results, in terms of rapport with other students and teachers, in the same situations where, as a kid, I know I would have got bollocked and humiliated. I get weird insights - some of sympathy, some of rage towards teachers and peers - when I get flashbacks to my school days.

I kind of feel like someone should say this to all adults who've had sh1t experiences at school - even if they got the grades but just have awful memories of the people. A teacher is an authority figure, as is a boss at work, and if you can work through where you went wrong with one, it can pay rub off and pay good dividends in your relationship with the other. (IMHO!)

I'm so glad it worked out for you.
My experiences were similar to yours. I educated myself for GCSE's and A levels - loathed university and quit and now study with the OU. The thing is I do worry about my genuine hatred of school coming across to the children I look after and I dread to think what I'd be like if I had my own. They wouldn't be going anywhere near a school that's for sure and certain. I still get flashbacks to my school days. my favourite fantasy as a child was locking everybody in the school and torching the place.
I found working in a school helped me 'get over it' a bit if you like

Yes - definitely. I am no longer so unquestioningly in awe of people who I know did well at school. Keep thinking about that English teacher who told my parents - in front of me - at their first ever meeting, six weeks or so into my 'A' level course that I was doing badly and that 'English 'A' level takes some maturity'. I actually got a very good grade in the end - and that was back in the Old Days when it seems like fewer people did. I've hardly picked up a novel since and feel all funny if I come across one of the works she covered. Same teacher - a HoD with many years under her belt - told a classmate's mother 'I always think of your daughter as someone who did Music'.

I tend to be of the opinion real education for the most part does not take place in the classroom. The world is a classroom, there are many 'teachers' within it. The lessons are all there for the learning although what you learn is up to you. The very fact I managed the educate myself and get (v high) grades further makes me believe it is all about willpower not about the school which you have clearly got.
I think though when I worked in a school I was one of the most popular members of staff amongst the children - I think because I'd had bad experiences at school - I worked hard to inspire and encourage children and provided many opportunities in my own time for them to do other things (dance, drama, art, cooking etc) I had very good 'success' if you like with children who were like me.
I'm not suggesting there aren't teachers like this - I know there are.
A teacher has so much power over the children they work with and some really do weild it like the sword of Damocles and cause a lot of damage.
Winston Chrurchill was told he would never amount to a thing as was Albert Einstein by their teachers.