You know how adults say that high-school was the best time of their lives, and that you'll miss it when you're their age? Yeah, well they were either that one kid who bullied everybody they could find because it gave them a sense of power in their otherwise miserable life, or they're plain ignorant to the spell that nostalgia has over them. In this thread, we're going to bust some people's nostalgia right open and spit on its grave. Here are the things I absolutely hated about school. Whenever I feel I miss my old classmates and wish I could go back in time to relive those days, I just think about all the bad things about school, and realise it's not worth dealing with just so I can talk to Kayleigh or Imogene again.
Stupid tasks & requirements
Homework is obviously important, because it helps to consolidate your learning and expand your field of knowledge... most of the time. Why do some teachers give the most random, irrelevant homework to their students? For instance, recently in history, my class was tasked with researching Jeremy Corbyn's policies in the most recent Labour Manifesto. Why? We're studying the Labour Party from 1997-2007, why do I need to know what its leader a decade later is up to?
Homework isn't the only thing plagued by stupidity, however. Why do teachers ask you to work in a specific way, and complain when you diverge from their instructions? For example, in History many years ago, we were asked to create a table comparing Hitler to Stalin. I decided to list my comparisons, because the only difference is that the structure is going to be neater and I don't have to draw a border. All the key information is still intact, and is in fact neater than it would have been, had I presented it via a table... Yet I had to do it again. I had to write down, word-for-word, everything I had literally just written, only with a border wrapped around it and certain points lapping over onto new lines because I've now got only half a page to work with for each part of the table.
Here's an even stupider example, still. On multiple occasions across various subjects, from English to History to Business, we've been tasked with drawing the worst thing ever invented: TIMELINES. UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. No, shut up teacher, I'm not going to draw a line across an A3 sheet of paper, jagged as all hell because the paper is twice the length of my ruler, just so I can messily cram information up and down said line on a plain white sheet that only further serves to make my writing unreadable. No, instead, I'm going to create a heading for each year in my lined book, so that my writing is actually coherent and well-structured. Oh, is that not okay? I have to do the whole thing again but on a messy line? *Resists urge to dropkick teacher*
Lastly, let's talk about word-counts. I get it, no teacher wants to read a four-thousand-word essay about carrots and how orange they are. But, when we're supposed to be talking about the ins-and-outs of a computer, a complex machine with a dozen different components all communicating with one another, I want to be able to write more than a tweet box so that I can ensure I'm getting as many marks as possible. At least my English teachers understood this, and said we're free to exceed the word-counts so long as the contents of our essays were all relevant.
Homework is obviously important, because it helps to consolidate your learning and expand your field of knowledge... most of the time. Why do some teachers give the most random, irrelevant homework to their students? For instance, recently in history, my class was tasked with researching Jeremy Corbyn's policies in the most recent Labour Manifesto. Why? We're studying the Labour Party from 1997-2007, why do I need to know what its leader a decade later is up to?
Homework isn't the only thing plagued by stupidity, however. Why do teachers ask you to work in a specific way, and complain when you diverge from their instructions? For example, in History many years ago, we were asked to create a table comparing Hitler to Stalin. I decided to list my comparisons, because the only difference is that the structure is going to be neater and I don't have to draw a border. All the key information is still intact, and is in fact neater than it would have been, had I presented it via a table... Yet I had to do it again. I had to write down, word-for-word, everything I had literally just written, only with a border wrapped around it and certain points lapping over onto new lines because I've now got only half a page to work with for each part of the table.
Here's an even stupider example, still. On multiple occasions across various subjects, from English to History to Business, we've been tasked with drawing the worst thing ever invented: TIMELINES. UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. No, shut up teacher, I'm not going to draw a line across an A3 sheet of paper, jagged as all hell because the paper is twice the length of my ruler, just so I can messily cram information up and down said line on a plain white sheet that only further serves to make my writing unreadable. No, instead, I'm going to create a heading for each year in my lined book, so that my writing is actually coherent and well-structured. Oh, is that not okay? I have to do the whole thing again but on a messy line? *Resists urge to dropkick teacher*
Lastly, let's talk about word-counts. I get it, no teacher wants to read a four-thousand-word essay about carrots and how orange they are. But, when we're supposed to be talking about the ins-and-outs of a computer, a complex machine with a dozen different components all communicating with one another, I want to be able to write more than a tweet box so that I can ensure I'm getting as many marks as possible. At least my English teachers understood this, and said we're free to exceed the word-counts so long as the contents of our essays were all relevant.
Physical Education (Hell on Earth. At least 50% of all P.E. coaches should never allowed near a school again)
I've got to preface this by saying that if you're a P.E. teacher, listen to everything I'm about to say! P.E. (Physical Education) is the worst subject of them all. You think Math is a little difficult? Struggling to remember your apostrophes in English? Can't quite remember the date of the WWI Armistice? Then you're pathetic, because you don't know misery until you've taken P.E. class.
Let's first discuss the locker rooms, where everybody would get changed. Together. All at the same time. These things were filthy, not because the students would mess them up, but because they were very hot, were rarely cleaned, and had no windows. Add to these nasty places twenty or more students who are sweating from having ran around the field six times, and you've got a recipe for localised hell. Oh, and you know those lockers on the wall? We weren't even allowed to use them. Why? I don't know, but our school clothes had to just sit on the floor for two hours, collecting dirt and nasty odors.
Plus, nobody likes being in a room with twenty or more people who have equally as little clothing on as you. That's really awkward, and god forbid you're not the skinniest one there, you'll be bullied or judged by the fittest of the bunch.
The uniform was just terrible. Girls had to wear shorts and tights, a navy-blue top and plimsolls. For the boys, Ronald McDonald's over-the-knee socks, joggers, and a black top. Those over-the-knee socks looked so stupid, but at least you won't be hit by any traffic. Trust me, they were visible from space.
Now let's get into some bad P.E. coaches. Why is it that only the boys were to play Rugby, and only the girls were to play Badminton? Way to reinforce stereotypes. Also, why was football and running (outdoors) done in the WINTER, and basketball (indoors) and dodgeball (indoors) were done in the SUMMER???? You freeze to death in the former, and miss out on a lovely summer's day in the latter. Who designed this schedule? Somebody, please fire them so hard that everybody around them also loses their jobs!
Listen up, school teacher people! If a student has "forgotten" their kit every day for the past three weeks, DO NOT make them wear those disgusting, filthy, putrid, disease-ridden, vile, grotesque, mangled, maggot-infested clothes that you found buried at the back of the locker room six months ago. All this will do is make the student hate both you, and the subject even more, and will also single them out. ALSO, if after doing this the student has been "sick" every month for the two hours a week of P.E. only, DO NOT pressure them into doing it by threats of phoning home or handing out detentions. Any P.E. teacher who has ever done this should honestly be fired, because they couldn't be more out of touch. I don't think a student is just "being lazy" for elaborately making themselves throw up every week an hour before school, forging their parents' signatures and intentionally losing their kit six feet beneath the local park. They're either being bullied, are insecure, or have some other issue that justifies them exhausting more mental and physical energy avoiding P.E., than they'd exhaust from just getting it over with every week.
OH MY GOOOOD, you are not training a group of David Beckham soon-to-be's, STOP MAKING IT SO COMPETITIVE! Jesus Christ, the point of the subject is to keep the students healthy and to teach the importance of exercise, not to raise killer athletes who are going to be in the Olympics by the age of sixteen. Why have the girls and boys compete in a football tournament that spans the entire school day? Here's what's going to happen every single time a football tournament of this nature is organised:
-The "jock" students are going to bully and pressure the weaker athletes into adopting a defensive role, something that I guarantee they aren't going to want to do. Nobody wants to stand around for six hours straight, when the action is more often than not, in the middle of the field
-The weaker students are going to get bored and begin to wander off, or are going to lose concentration. When action finally does arise, they're going to bottle their role
-The "jock" students are going to blame the weaker students, and the situation will quickly escalate and get physical
Obviously as a P.E. coach, you're going to have favourites, typically those who are better than the rest. But don't neglect the rest of the class to give those students one-to-one lectures about how they can improve further! All this does is inflates their egos and makes the weaker students feel even more insecure. Again, you're not training a David Beckham soon-to-be, and if you act as though you are then you're setting them up for arrogance and failure.
Here's a better idea: Put the students into groups of three, each comprised of one stronger student and two weaklings. Have the better students train the group, so that you essentially turn one coach into eight. This will give the better athletes more empathy towards their peers, and will give the nerds the time they deserve to develop.
Lastly, coaches really need to be more aware. Stop watching the football/basketball/tennis game, and watch the people playing it. Are they performing well? Doing something wrong? Being provoked or teased or taunted by somebody? Is everybody being a good sport?
P.E. Advice
Okay, that's the end of my P.E. rant now, because it's long enough as it is. I want to give some advice to those struggling in this god-awful subject. See, after getting bullied myself for about a year or so and for being insecure to the degree that I refused to go into school every Friday, I was finally made exempt from the dress code and locker rooms, and eventually the subject itself. If your coach is an arrogant rat, find your head-of-year and request to be exempt from the dress code and locker rooms. This is reasonable enough of a request. If you're still having a hard time, see if you can be exempt from the subject itself. I personally had mine replaced with an extra two hours of Math a week... which I then dropped in Year 11 because anxiety hates me, so I guess that was a waste.
I've got to preface this by saying that if you're a P.E. teacher, listen to everything I'm about to say! P.E. (Physical Education) is the worst subject of them all. You think Math is a little difficult? Struggling to remember your apostrophes in English? Can't quite remember the date of the WWI Armistice? Then you're pathetic, because you don't know misery until you've taken P.E. class.
Let's first discuss the locker rooms, where everybody would get changed. Together. All at the same time. These things were filthy, not because the students would mess them up, but because they were very hot, were rarely cleaned, and had no windows. Add to these nasty places twenty or more students who are sweating from having ran around the field six times, and you've got a recipe for localised hell. Oh, and you know those lockers on the wall? We weren't even allowed to use them. Why? I don't know, but our school clothes had to just sit on the floor for two hours, collecting dirt and nasty odors.
Plus, nobody likes being in a room with twenty or more people who have equally as little clothing on as you. That's really awkward, and god forbid you're not the skinniest one there, you'll be bullied or judged by the fittest of the bunch.
The uniform was just terrible. Girls had to wear shorts and tights, a navy-blue top and plimsolls. For the boys, Ronald McDonald's over-the-knee socks, joggers, and a black top. Those over-the-knee socks looked so stupid, but at least you won't be hit by any traffic. Trust me, they were visible from space.
Now let's get into some bad P.E. coaches. Why is it that only the boys were to play Rugby, and only the girls were to play Badminton? Way to reinforce stereotypes. Also, why was football and running (outdoors) done in the WINTER, and basketball (indoors) and dodgeball (indoors) were done in the SUMMER???? You freeze to death in the former, and miss out on a lovely summer's day in the latter. Who designed this schedule? Somebody, please fire them so hard that everybody around them also loses their jobs!
Listen up, school teacher people! If a student has "forgotten" their kit every day for the past three weeks, DO NOT make them wear those disgusting, filthy, putrid, disease-ridden, vile, grotesque, mangled, maggot-infested clothes that you found buried at the back of the locker room six months ago. All this will do is make the student hate both you, and the subject even more, and will also single them out. ALSO, if after doing this the student has been "sick" every month for the two hours a week of P.E. only, DO NOT pressure them into doing it by threats of phoning home or handing out detentions. Any P.E. teacher who has ever done this should honestly be fired, because they couldn't be more out of touch. I don't think a student is just "being lazy" for elaborately making themselves throw up every week an hour before school, forging their parents' signatures and intentionally losing their kit six feet beneath the local park. They're either being bullied, are insecure, or have some other issue that justifies them exhausting more mental and physical energy avoiding P.E., than they'd exhaust from just getting it over with every week.
OH MY GOOOOD, you are not training a group of David Beckham soon-to-be's, STOP MAKING IT SO COMPETITIVE! Jesus Christ, the point of the subject is to keep the students healthy and to teach the importance of exercise, not to raise killer athletes who are going to be in the Olympics by the age of sixteen. Why have the girls and boys compete in a football tournament that spans the entire school day? Here's what's going to happen every single time a football tournament of this nature is organised:
-The "jock" students are going to bully and pressure the weaker athletes into adopting a defensive role, something that I guarantee they aren't going to want to do. Nobody wants to stand around for six hours straight, when the action is more often than not, in the middle of the field
-The weaker students are going to get bored and begin to wander off, or are going to lose concentration. When action finally does arise, they're going to bottle their role
-The "jock" students are going to blame the weaker students, and the situation will quickly escalate and get physical
Obviously as a P.E. coach, you're going to have favourites, typically those who are better than the rest. But don't neglect the rest of the class to give those students one-to-one lectures about how they can improve further! All this does is inflates their egos and makes the weaker students feel even more insecure. Again, you're not training a David Beckham soon-to-be, and if you act as though you are then you're setting them up for arrogance and failure.
Here's a better idea: Put the students into groups of three, each comprised of one stronger student and two weaklings. Have the better students train the group, so that you essentially turn one coach into eight. This will give the better athletes more empathy towards their peers, and will give the nerds the time they deserve to develop.
Lastly, coaches really need to be more aware. Stop watching the football/basketball/tennis game, and watch the people playing it. Are they performing well? Doing something wrong? Being provoked or teased or taunted by somebody? Is everybody being a good sport?
P.E. Advice
Okay, that's the end of my P.E. rant now, because it's long enough as it is. I want to give some advice to those struggling in this god-awful subject. See, after getting bullied myself for about a year or so and for being insecure to the degree that I refused to go into school every Friday, I was finally made exempt from the dress code and locker rooms, and eventually the subject itself. If your coach is an arrogant rat, find your head-of-year and request to be exempt from the dress code and locker rooms. This is reasonable enough of a request. If you're still having a hard time, see if you can be exempt from the subject itself. I personally had mine replaced with an extra two hours of Math a week... which I then dropped in Year 11 because anxiety hates me, so I guess that was a waste.
School logic
Between the years 1957 and 1959, in the UK only, the ownership of washing machines, that one specific appliance and none other, increased by 54%. Please explain to me why this is important information to know, but how to pay bills, find a house, stay healthy, create a budget and not die as an adult aren't things that are taught by schools? Well, the answer is obvious, isn't it? Because knowing this one random fact automatically solves every issue I'll ever face in life.
Between the years 1957 and 1959, in the UK only, the ownership of washing machines, that one specific appliance and none other, increased by 54%. Please explain to me why this is important information to know, but how to pay bills, find a house, stay healthy, create a budget and not die as an adult aren't things that are taught by schools? Well, the answer is obvious, isn't it? Because knowing this one random fact automatically solves every issue I'll ever face in life.
Unfair/unreasonable/terrible teachers (yay, stories!)
Alright folks, brace yourselves, because this topic is a little bit political... kinda. Not really, but the word 'Feminism' does make an appearance. Don't worry, i'll keep it as void of political opinion as possible (unlike my teachers...). Pretty sure discussing politics isn't allowed on the forums, so best you do the same.
The only English teacher I've ever disliked had a habit of trying to indoctrinate the class with her Feminist opinions. For example, we were supposed to study historical Feminism in Literature from 1890-1930. Sounds pretty simple, right? Then please explain to me why our teacher spent the introductory lesson teaching us about modern Feminism, in the most bias manner possible. I don't care what your views on the subject are (in fact, please refrain from sharing), it's pretty common sense that you shouldn't do this no matter the topic. It is a Christian school, and the R.E. (Religious Education) teachers weren't even allowed to be bias in their teaching of religion. Why then, is an English teacher allowed to talk about something absolutely unrelated to the subject, and conclude with "I hope we're all Feminists now" and the end of the introductory lesson? THE POINT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IS TO BE CRITICAL! We're told throughout that so long as you can back up your opinion, you cannot be wrong. I guess this teacher's motto should've been "You cannot be wrong as long as you back up an opinion that I agree with".
My History teacher has a similar habit, but at least he tries to refrain from showing bias... I think...? He constantly scorns the Conservative Party no matter the period in time, regardless of whether they deserve it or not. Again, this is a Christian school and yet in R.E., the teachers aren't allowed to favour Christianity over any other religion, nor treat any other religion as less valid. I do like this teacher a lot though, this is just something he does that gets my feathers ruffled.
To clarify, I'm not annoyed at these teachers' opinions, I'm annoyed that they shared them when they were for the most part, totally unrelated to the subject in question. Schools should teach students to think for themselves, not to follow whatever's the popular opinion.
But back to the English teacher, she also made a student cry by misplacing their work three separate times. She had to redo her work past the deadline date, and again the year later, because this incompetent teacher had misplaced it so often. I almost think it was intentional. I mean, nobody else's work was misplaced? What are the odds she misplaces the same student's work three times? You'd think she'd learn her lesson after the first time. Hell, even misplacing work once is extremely irresponsible and unprofessional.
Substitutes... you either love 'em or you hate 'em. I hate them >:/
So, we used to have a lot of substitutes in Year 9, English. One of them was this stern, sharp-faced guy who I'm convinced has never even seen a teenager before. I wouldn't be surprised if he was just born as an adult or something, because how else could you be so out-of-touch? So, this kid in front of me takes my pen out of my hand, and when the teacher tells him to return it to me, the kid pulls out a dozen of the exact same pen, and says I stole his pen. The teacher took his side upon seeing this "proof", and thus I was left without a pen. Nice :) To be honest though, I am quite impressed that he thought that quickly on his feet, and just so happened to have the same pens as me. I guess I'll let him off for this, just because in hindsight it is pretty funny.
The next day, I came equipped with a different type of pen. The kid then took it from me again and threw it in the bin. Guess what happens next... Here, I'll give you a few options as to what the teacher did next:
A - He gives me a spare pen
B - He moves me away from the kid
C - He tells me to dig through the bin to get my pen back
D - He accuses me of stealing the kid's pen again
If you guessed C, then you're right :) I had to dig through the bin to get my pen back, because he flat-out ordered me to. Yes, he forced me to do the most demeaning thing imaginable, and didn't accept no for an answer on the account that... I don't even know. Maybe he was the kid's dad or something and wanted to see me suffer.
A different substitute we had in Year 9 English was a woman I'm still convinced is the personification of death itself. So, the same kid as before is being an annoying rodent, taking my books this time and either closing them so I lose my page, or throwing them across the floor. I just want to interrupt this story to explain one thing: The teacher's desk is in front of the kid's, whose own desk is in front of mine. We were at the far-end of the room, by the wall; we were the closest students to the teacher. In fact, the kid was right in front of the teacher. Okay, so he's being an annoying menace, and after about fifteen minutes of my blood flat-out boiling, the teacher finally gives me permission to move my desk. THANK. GOD. A good substitute, whoa that's a first! So, I move it next to a friend of mine in the middle of the class... At least, I tried to. The teacher then yelled at me to move away by myself, because all I've done is annoy the kid in front of me. Words cannot express how livid I was, but if I had a time machine, this is the first moment of my life I'd return to just so I could scorn that incompetent, blind, brain-dripping-out-of-ears teacher with every bad word under Olympus.
Hopefully you've all had a grand time laughing at my expense with these stories that surprisingly, still enrage me to this day. I have plenty more, but I'm mad enough as it is for now :)
Alright folks, brace yourselves, because this topic is a little bit political... kinda. Not really, but the word 'Feminism' does make an appearance. Don't worry, i'll keep it as void of political opinion as possible (unlike my teachers...). Pretty sure discussing politics isn't allowed on the forums, so best you do the same.
The only English teacher I've ever disliked had a habit of trying to indoctrinate the class with her Feminist opinions. For example, we were supposed to study historical Feminism in Literature from 1890-1930. Sounds pretty simple, right? Then please explain to me why our teacher spent the introductory lesson teaching us about modern Feminism, in the most bias manner possible. I don't care what your views on the subject are (in fact, please refrain from sharing), it's pretty common sense that you shouldn't do this no matter the topic. It is a Christian school, and the R.E. (Religious Education) teachers weren't even allowed to be bias in their teaching of religion. Why then, is an English teacher allowed to talk about something absolutely unrelated to the subject, and conclude with "I hope we're all Feminists now" and the end of the introductory lesson? THE POINT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IS TO BE CRITICAL! We're told throughout that so long as you can back up your opinion, you cannot be wrong. I guess this teacher's motto should've been "You cannot be wrong as long as you back up an opinion that I agree with".
My History teacher has a similar habit, but at least he tries to refrain from showing bias... I think...? He constantly scorns the Conservative Party no matter the period in time, regardless of whether they deserve it or not. Again, this is a Christian school and yet in R.E., the teachers aren't allowed to favour Christianity over any other religion, nor treat any other religion as less valid. I do like this teacher a lot though, this is just something he does that gets my feathers ruffled.
To clarify, I'm not annoyed at these teachers' opinions, I'm annoyed that they shared them when they were for the most part, totally unrelated to the subject in question. Schools should teach students to think for themselves, not to follow whatever's the popular opinion.
But back to the English teacher, she also made a student cry by misplacing their work three separate times. She had to redo her work past the deadline date, and again the year later, because this incompetent teacher had misplaced it so often. I almost think it was intentional. I mean, nobody else's work was misplaced? What are the odds she misplaces the same student's work three times? You'd think she'd learn her lesson after the first time. Hell, even misplacing work once is extremely irresponsible and unprofessional.
Substitutes... you either love 'em or you hate 'em. I hate them >:/
So, we used to have a lot of substitutes in Year 9, English. One of them was this stern, sharp-faced guy who I'm convinced has never even seen a teenager before. I wouldn't be surprised if he was just born as an adult or something, because how else could you be so out-of-touch? So, this kid in front of me takes my pen out of my hand, and when the teacher tells him to return it to me, the kid pulls out a dozen of the exact same pen, and says I stole his pen. The teacher took his side upon seeing this "proof", and thus I was left without a pen. Nice :) To be honest though, I am quite impressed that he thought that quickly on his feet, and just so happened to have the same pens as me. I guess I'll let him off for this, just because in hindsight it is pretty funny.
The next day, I came equipped with a different type of pen. The kid then took it from me again and threw it in the bin. Guess what happens next... Here, I'll give you a few options as to what the teacher did next:
A - He gives me a spare pen
B - He moves me away from the kid
C - He tells me to dig through the bin to get my pen back
D - He accuses me of stealing the kid's pen again
If you guessed C, then you're right :) I had to dig through the bin to get my pen back, because he flat-out ordered me to. Yes, he forced me to do the most demeaning thing imaginable, and didn't accept no for an answer on the account that... I don't even know. Maybe he was the kid's dad or something and wanted to see me suffer.
A different substitute we had in Year 9 English was a woman I'm still convinced is the personification of death itself. So, the same kid as before is being an annoying rodent, taking my books this time and either closing them so I lose my page, or throwing them across the floor. I just want to interrupt this story to explain one thing: The teacher's desk is in front of the kid's, whose own desk is in front of mine. We were at the far-end of the room, by the wall; we were the closest students to the teacher. In fact, the kid was right in front of the teacher. Okay, so he's being an annoying menace, and after about fifteen minutes of my blood flat-out boiling, the teacher finally gives me permission to move my desk. THANK. GOD. A good substitute, whoa that's a first! So, I move it next to a friend of mine in the middle of the class... At least, I tried to. The teacher then yelled at me to move away by myself, because all I've done is annoy the kid in front of me. Words cannot express how livid I was, but if I had a time machine, this is the first moment of my life I'd return to just so I could scorn that incompetent, blind, brain-dripping-out-of-ears teacher with every bad word under Olympus.
Hopefully you've all had a grand time laughing at my expense with these stories that surprisingly, still enrage me to this day. I have plenty more, but I'm mad enough as it is for now :)
Bullies
Hi, I'm irresponsible Sophie, and I say bad things! I know there's a thing about not condoning violence and whatever, but I don't care. 'Kay? I don't care. If you're being bullied, punch them in their stupid face until they're on the floor, right in sight of a teacher or two. The school will do the bare minimum it can until their reputation is threatened. Nothing threatens a Christian School's reputation like a student being knocked to the ground by a fist because the teachers themselves neglected the situation. Perhaps it's not like this for other schools, I don't know.
Okay, responsible Sophie is back. Don't actually do this. Resorting to violence as a first option will probably solve your bullying problem somewhat, but it'll result in possible expulsion, detentions, etc., which could take a gigantic toll on your studies.
Having older relatives who go to the same school may help situations regarding bullies, so that's definitely a valuable intimidation approach to consider taking if somebody won't leave you alone. I would also try going to the head teacher, rather than the teacher of the class the bullying is happening in. This is because the teacher has two dozen other students to tend to, they're not going to put much effort into resolving the issues of only one student unless they feel their job is being threatened as a result of it. Head teachers are way scarier and have authority throughout the building, rather than just in one classroom. Best of all, they have to do something about it. If they don't, again, the school's reputation is on the line.
Also, if you're a bully yourself, change yourself. Not going to hold it against you in this thread or scorn you, but just change. If you're bullying somebody, you'll be remembered for all the wrong reasons. I remember a "jock" student whose name I won't mention, who could definitely have been a bully if they wanted to be. I remember them not for pushing me into the mud or head-locking me the way I remember their friends, but for hanging out with me in P.E. even when we were on opposite teams. We're still buddies to this day. Which would you rather be remembered for?
I cannot stress enough what negative effect bullying has on a person. I partially blame it for my shockingly poor attendance, which reached almost 60% in Year 11, and constant anxiety and low self-esteem. I have thick skin nowadays, but I'd rather be a healthy-minded thin-skinned person than who I am now. For the record, I think if your attendance falls below 90% your parent/guardian can receive legal trouble. To be at around 60% is abysmally bad.
Hi, I'm irresponsible Sophie, and I say bad things! I know there's a thing about not condoning violence and whatever, but I don't care. 'Kay? I don't care. If you're being bullied, punch them in their stupid face until they're on the floor, right in sight of a teacher or two. The school will do the bare minimum it can until their reputation is threatened. Nothing threatens a Christian School's reputation like a student being knocked to the ground by a fist because the teachers themselves neglected the situation. Perhaps it's not like this for other schools, I don't know.
Okay, responsible Sophie is back. Don't actually do this. Resorting to violence as a first option will probably solve your bullying problem somewhat, but it'll result in possible expulsion, detentions, etc., which could take a gigantic toll on your studies.
Having older relatives who go to the same school may help situations regarding bullies, so that's definitely a valuable intimidation approach to consider taking if somebody won't leave you alone. I would also try going to the head teacher, rather than the teacher of the class the bullying is happening in. This is because the teacher has two dozen other students to tend to, they're not going to put much effort into resolving the issues of only one student unless they feel their job is being threatened as a result of it. Head teachers are way scarier and have authority throughout the building, rather than just in one classroom. Best of all, they have to do something about it. If they don't, again, the school's reputation is on the line.
Also, if you're a bully yourself, change yourself. Not going to hold it against you in this thread or scorn you, but just change. If you're bullying somebody, you'll be remembered for all the wrong reasons. I remember a "jock" student whose name I won't mention, who could definitely have been a bully if they wanted to be. I remember them not for pushing me into the mud or head-locking me the way I remember their friends, but for hanging out with me in P.E. even when we were on opposite teams. We're still buddies to this day. Which would you rather be remembered for?
I cannot stress enough what negative effect bullying has on a person. I partially blame it for my shockingly poor attendance, which reached almost 60% in Year 11, and constant anxiety and low self-esteem. I have thick skin nowadays, but I'd rather be a healthy-minded thin-skinned person than who I am now. For the record, I think if your attendance falls below 90% your parent/guardian can receive legal trouble. To be at around 60% is abysmally bad.
Just a pet peeve
All my teachers do this, and it irritates the hell out of me. So, for every lesson we do, regardless of subject, we have to write the date and the "learning objective". It's usually something like this:
Thursday, 05th April, 2018
L/O: To understand why some teachers do stupid things, and evaluate said stupidity
Okay, so what annoys me is that if I don't underline any of it, the teacher(s) will scribble a nasty green ink line beneath a portion of it, followed by a capital 'U', as a way of telling me to underline it. Wow, way to go, thanks. You've just messed up my notes by scribbling over it in non-erasable ink as a permanent reminder that I didn't use the correct structure. You really couldn't have just done it in pencil?
All my notes go straight onto Evernote anyways, every single one of them. I don't even use my exercise books to revise, so why does it matter that people are able to notice the learning objective? If an assessor requests my book to ensure the teacher is doing a good job, then sure I'll go through and underline it all. But why permanently point out in shiny ink that I've not underlined it without having to be asked first?
All my teachers do this, and it irritates the hell out of me. So, for every lesson we do, regardless of subject, we have to write the date and the "learning objective". It's usually something like this:
Thursday, 05th April, 2018
L/O: To understand why some teachers do stupid things, and evaluate said stupidity
Okay, so what annoys me is that if I don't underline any of it, the teacher(s) will scribble a nasty green ink line beneath a portion of it, followed by a capital 'U', as a way of telling me to underline it. Wow, way to go, thanks. You've just messed up my notes by scribbling over it in non-erasable ink as a permanent reminder that I didn't use the correct structure. You really couldn't have just done it in pencil?
All my notes go straight onto Evernote anyways, every single one of them. I don't even use my exercise books to revise, so why does it matter that people are able to notice the learning objective? If an assessor requests my book to ensure the teacher is doing a good job, then sure I'll go through and underline it all. But why permanently point out in shiny ink that I've not underlined it without having to be asked first?
Printers and laptops, and my school's AWFUL system with them
The sixth form students have their own dedicated laptop trolley. It used to be in the common room, until one kid cracked a keyboard in half over another kid's head. Since then, we've had all our computers, laptops and keyboards taken from us. I'm not kidding either, I saw the keyboard. It was totally destroyed, utterly unsalvageable. The victim said it "hurt a bit", but I can only imagine they were sore for a week straight afterwards.
A new system was put into place: the laptops stay by the technicians, and if we want to borrow one, we write our names down alongside the number on the laptop. If we don't return them, our school accounts get banned until the laptop is returned, or paid for if it's damaged or lost. This also sounds fine, except a friend of mine was charged for a laptop he didn't break, because the kid who did break it wrote somebody else's name down. This is because the sheet we use to write our names down is completely unguarded, it's just out in the open with nobody watching over it.
Things get even stupider. If you don't plug the laptop in after you're done with it, your school account also gets banned until you listen to the technician moan on at you. So, just plug it in, right? No, because if somebody takes out the laptop that you last used and decides to not use it for a number of reasons (say, if a key is missing. Almost all laptops have missing keys), and they don't plug it back in again, you will be punished because your name is the last one registered to that laptop. This has happened to me twice, and only after telling the technician that he'll be seeing my English teacher to explain why I haven't printed my coursework, did it get unbanned. The same thing happened to a girl in my History class recently, who threatened to have the head of History come down if her account wasn't unbanned.
The printers are just awful. Okay, so this isn't a problem anymore since we got new printers a couple of months ago, but for FIVE YEARS I had to put up with this so I'm talking about it anyways (god my hands hurt, this thread is already 4,000+ words long! Time to wrap it up I think).
Each student has a plastic card that they can use to print off their work with. However, you only get to print off fifty sheets a week, and sometimes you wouldn't be given credits over the weekend at all. This means if you're taking a subject with a lot of coursework, you'll have to go down to the technicians to get more printer credits. What an unnecessary step!
Plus, the teachers stopped refilling the printers by like, Year 10 or so, presumably because kids would steal paper from them. Instead, you'd have to ask the nearest classroom for paper, meaning you're disturbing their lesson just so a teacher can hand you a couple of sheets of paper. Who cares if kids are stealing it?? It costs next to nothing anyways, and almost every single bin in the school is recycled.
This is the worst thing, though. The printers wouldn't actually tell you if they were out of ink or paper until you started printing; you have no other way of knowing. Every time you go to print something is a game of chance. Will you get your work printed straight away? Or will the printer jam, meaning you have to reprint it and try again, at the cost of your valuable fifty sheets of credit? Perhaps there's no paper in it, meaning you have to go find somebody to give you paper, lest you sacrifice those credits by reprinting elsewhere. Or, there may not be any ink left, meaning you're printing literal blank sheets of paper, each of which is again costing you credits that you can't afford to spare. It wasn't uncommon for printing to take upwards of twenty minutes, just by trying each and every printer around the building until one of them finally worked. Even worse? You turn your computer off and put it away after clicking 'Print'. Yep, if the printer screws you over, you have to get another laptop out, load it up which could sometimes take forever, sign back in, open up your work and print it again.
The sixth form students have their own dedicated laptop trolley. It used to be in the common room, until one kid cracked a keyboard in half over another kid's head. Since then, we've had all our computers, laptops and keyboards taken from us. I'm not kidding either, I saw the keyboard. It was totally destroyed, utterly unsalvageable. The victim said it "hurt a bit", but I can only imagine they were sore for a week straight afterwards.
A new system was put into place: the laptops stay by the technicians, and if we want to borrow one, we write our names down alongside the number on the laptop. If we don't return them, our school accounts get banned until the laptop is returned, or paid for if it's damaged or lost. This also sounds fine, except a friend of mine was charged for a laptop he didn't break, because the kid who did break it wrote somebody else's name down. This is because the sheet we use to write our names down is completely unguarded, it's just out in the open with nobody watching over it.
Things get even stupider. If you don't plug the laptop in after you're done with it, your school account also gets banned until you listen to the technician moan on at you. So, just plug it in, right? No, because if somebody takes out the laptop that you last used and decides to not use it for a number of reasons (say, if a key is missing. Almost all laptops have missing keys), and they don't plug it back in again, you will be punished because your name is the last one registered to that laptop. This has happened to me twice, and only after telling the technician that he'll be seeing my English teacher to explain why I haven't printed my coursework, did it get unbanned. The same thing happened to a girl in my History class recently, who threatened to have the head of History come down if her account wasn't unbanned.
The printers are just awful. Okay, so this isn't a problem anymore since we got new printers a couple of months ago, but for FIVE YEARS I had to put up with this so I'm talking about it anyways (god my hands hurt, this thread is already 4,000+ words long! Time to wrap it up I think).
Each student has a plastic card that they can use to print off their work with. However, you only get to print off fifty sheets a week, and sometimes you wouldn't be given credits over the weekend at all. This means if you're taking a subject with a lot of coursework, you'll have to go down to the technicians to get more printer credits. What an unnecessary step!
Plus, the teachers stopped refilling the printers by like, Year 10 or so, presumably because kids would steal paper from them. Instead, you'd have to ask the nearest classroom for paper, meaning you're disturbing their lesson just so a teacher can hand you a couple of sheets of paper. Who cares if kids are stealing it?? It costs next to nothing anyways, and almost every single bin in the school is recycled.
This is the worst thing, though. The printers wouldn't actually tell you if they were out of ink or paper until you started printing; you have no other way of knowing. Every time you go to print something is a game of chance. Will you get your work printed straight away? Or will the printer jam, meaning you have to reprint it and try again, at the cost of your valuable fifty sheets of credit? Perhaps there's no paper in it, meaning you have to go find somebody to give you paper, lest you sacrifice those credits by reprinting elsewhere. Or, there may not be any ink left, meaning you're printing literal blank sheets of paper, each of which is again costing you credits that you can't afford to spare. It wasn't uncommon for printing to take upwards of twenty minutes, just by trying each and every printer around the building until one of them finally worked. Even worse? You turn your computer off and put it away after clicking 'Print'. Yep, if the printer screws you over, you have to get another laptop out, load it up which could sometimes take forever, sign back in, open up your work and print it again.
The good things about school
-I loved my English teachers. No really, other than the aforementioned one, they were all awesome!
-Note to Sophie: Think of something good to say about school
-Note to Sophie: Think of something good to say about school
-Note to Sophie: Think of something good to say about school
-I loved my English teachers. No really, other than the aforementioned one, they were all awesome!
-Note to Sophie: Think of something good to say about school
-Note to Sophie: Think of something good to say about school
-Note to Sophie: Think of something good to say about school
Conclusion
School is awful, and anybody who claims otherwise is clouded with nostalgia. So... have your nostalgia glasses smashed yet? If not, then you've probably never taken a P.E. class in your life. Either that or you're a P.E. jock, but considering you're on a Minecraft forum, I very much doubt that. If people actually read and enjoyed this trash, then I might make a guide on how to both study and not hate life at the same time!
School is awful, and anybody who claims otherwise is clouded with nostalgia. So... have your nostalgia glasses smashed yet? If not, then you've probably never taken a P.E. class in your life. Either that or you're a P.E. jock, but considering you're on a Minecraft forum, I very much doubt that. If people actually read and enjoyed this trash, then I might make a guide on how to both study and not hate life at the same time!
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