People often told me when I was attending school that when I finished, I would miss
these times and wish that I could go back. It is now three years since I have finished,
and I think at least once a day I am thankful that I will never ever have to go back
there. Often I remember the typical attitude of schoolgoers... “Oh I hate school, the
teachers are so gay,” is what they’d say. I thought that I was simply thinking like
them, hating school because it was a place you had to go and be told to do boring
things by people you didn’t particularly like. Only now is it that I am realising that my
hatred for school was not that simple, and that it almost ruined my life.

There are three major groups of people at school, these consist of -

1) The dumb ones. I know a few people who definitely fall under this category.
During school they would just muck around and be stupid, but once out their lack of
intelligence would really start to break through the surface. These are the people that
drive cars stupidly, get in piles of debt, abuse drugs and get in trouble with the law. If
these people went to school twice as long as I did, I would still be more intelligent
than them. To me, that is proof in itself that school doesn’t work.

2) The naturally intelligent. This group of people are the ones who obviously didn’t
acquire their intelligence and knowledge through the help of schooling. They are
usually very creative and friendly people, who excel in the workplace but
unfortunately will probably fall for the tertiary education trap. The trap isn’t that bad,
though, because if they make the most of it they can become very effective members
of society, such as a doctor.

If they manage to escape further education, they can also become effective people,
but in a different way. They can become authors, actors, proper musicians (as
opposed to say, Britney Spears) and so on. Authors to me in particular are the
pinnacle of the human mind. To create a living breathing world out of paper and ink
impresses me far more than a person who regurgitates information to assist in
someone’s health problem. Don’t get me wrong, I respect doctors and am eternally
grateful for the many times they have helped me, but their style of knowledge doesn’t
impress me. The naturally acquired artistic intelligence of an author does.

3) Minds conditioned to be ‘smart’. These are people who are smart solely because of
the schooling system. “But you said school didn’t work!” I am hearing you say, but
listen further. Think about it for a while, and see if you can recall someone you know
like this. These were the people at school who frantically studied before every test.
People who got good marks on their assignments, but only because they knew how to
complete them in a style that impressed their teachers.

An example of this is a girl I used to know at school. She had written a story about a
girl trying to break into the movie business as an actor. During the story she went to
auditions, where she was faced with disaster after disaster, until finally at the end, it
was revealed that the story itself was set in a movie. Hardly original, I thought. This
girl then thought that she’d go through her story with an electronic thesaurus changing
all the normal words into larger more impressive ones. One sentence read “I was in
the city surrounded by many buildings”. After she was finished with her device it read
“I was in the city, surrounded by copious amounts of buildings”. Copious in that
sentence is used in the wrong context. Despite the dictionary definition, to me
copious means an ‘excessively amount’. So the sentence read “I was in the city, surrounded
by an excessively amount of buildings”. I tried to explain this to her, but her
school conditioned mind couldn’t see the error, so was blind to that and the many
other errors in her story. She got an A. These people are often quite successful,
moreso than the naturally talented people.

Then we have the ‘cool’ kids, and the ‘un-cool’ kids. Or in other words, a
self-concocted social hierarchy. This is well documented in many places, and is
apparent in numerous movies and stories, almost to the point of cliché. It is very easy
for a cool kid to make an un-cool kid’s life hell in the schoolyard, and while it never
happened to me, I saw it happen to many. That sort of power should be attainable by
none, but it is readily available to hormonally charged youths, whose lust for making
some people’s lives hell is second only to their lust for power and ‘position’ in said
hierarchy.

Group 1 are usually the cool kids, group 2 are usually the un-cool kids, and group 3
are mixed, perhaps slightly weighted to the cool side of things. The naturally
intelligent people go through school knowing their smart, whilst watching group 3
fake their way through, meanwhile copping the brunt of their attacks for being a
member of the ‘un-cool’ kids. Many lives have been destroyed this way, because as
smart and intelligent as these people are, in the end they are only human, eventually
their minds will cripple under the constant stream of injustice that they must face.
Suicides, drug-addiction and depression are all the result of this, as I have personally
seen happen to people. Imagine knowing you are smarter than someone, and seeing
them succeed over you only due to a flawed mis-managed system. School teaches
people that if they mess up school, they mess up their life, so they will naturally
assume that the rest of their life will be like this. Would you want to wake up
everyday and face that? Would you want to wake up tomorrow if you had to face that?
I highly doubt you would, and that is why many choose not to, or to take drugs to
cloud the reality that school has given them.

What this situation needs is an alternative, and that alternative is simple. Make school
non-compulsory, and make a campaign that supports that idea, showing the
possibilities of not going to school can offer. Such possibilities is early entry into the
workforce, in jobs such as retail and hospitality. It is entirely possible to make lots of
money, and be a very successful and happy person in these occupations, and you don’t
need to waste years of your life to do it. There seems to be a stigma attached to this,
sort of like “give maths and science a go, before you do what you really want to do”.
After you spend 5 years ‘giving them a go’, you end up doing what you want to do
and being years behind where you could have been in a different system, the system I
just proposed.

School is given much too much importance in the potential shaping of our lives. I
agree that school is important in teaching people the fundamentals of knowledge, but
real wisdom is to be found by yourself, and in the many journeys and explorations
that life will give you by itself, without school acting as a hindrance.

edit- sorry for the weird blocking of the text, was copy pasted from MSWorks.

I'm a blend of all three

Eat a dick.

i was born with skillz

Why school is bad

cause its the same s*** every single f***ing day

i guess i fell into the un-cool side of things, but i knew they were all stupid so i didn't care, and look at them now, all popping pills and going to strip clubs haha

I fall under catagory #1. :)

I was born with a brain, unfortunatly.

Amen brother, preach it!

im kind of like a naturally smart person, but i still struggle (im in grade 11) if i dont listen at all in something like chemistry. I think the one thing i will always love about school is religion, i go to a public school yet for a semester we had religion once a week, i got kicked out almost every lesson and the teachers hated me, condtradicted them so much with fact.

The teachers used to always ask me if i wanted to just start the lesson outside but i always found it funner to get kicked out. :)

Yeah I'm the same deathwalker. I do need to listen in class.

Such possibilities is early entry into the
workforce, in jobs such as retail and hospitality. It is entirely possible to make lots of
money, and be a very successful and happy person in these occupations, and you don’t
need to waste years of your life to do it.

What like working full time at target your whole life? oh wai

I don't remember typing that I was successful, so why do you seem to think that I said it?

im naturally smart. but im lazy and dont do homework and dont study. therefore i get 50% A's 50% B's

meh, its good enough for me

I think I was a combination of 2 and 3. I was naturally smart and didn't work much, but I did do some things just for the teachers, but only if I knew the teacher wouldn't accept it any other way.

yeah school can suck if you don't have mental tenacity.

An example of this is a girl I used to know at school. She had written a story about a
girl trying to break into the movie business as an actor. During the story she went to
auditions, where she was faced with disaster after disaster, until finally at the end, it
was revealed that the story itself was set in a movie

I know one just like her, gets almost exclusively A's... despite being a particularly dim witted individual, she is able to compensate for it by studying every waking moment (not understanding a a single shred of the concepts she is absorbing) . And to cap it all off... she wants to be a doctor... she's afraid of blood....

To actually contribute something, I think its fine that kids are required to attend school till grade 10, thats 3 years not 5 btw. You propose that children op out of school and do what? Are they meant to know what they want to do at 15? In your system youd have 12 year olds packing the shelves at woolies.

Also could you flesh out your system, because at the moment all it seems to be is 'hurr you dont have to go to school' expand it for me.

everyone who posted in here that "school is boreing and s***" .. congrats, you just grouped yourself into Cat 1

she wants to be a doctor... she's afraid of blood....

omg can't you just see the intelligence dripping off her

What like working full time at target your whole life? oh wai

Also, I have co-workers who prove you wrong, in a big way.

A store Merchandise Manager (MM) earns lots more money than you. I know you have big plans for the future with your uni course, but hey, we're talking about now aren't we?

Anyway, I have never met or had an MM that is a f***ing dumbc***, and most of them remark on how they did poorly at school. All during school teachers would have thought "no future" simply because they didn't get a certain letter next to their name on their report cards. But now they're on about 45k a year, and are within easy reach of a 70k a year job, and a chance at a 90k a year job as an area manager, which I think a lot of them (especially one I had) will probably get to.

Also I find you grouping people solely on what you think their intelligence is arrogant and a really s***ty way of trying to describe what a person may do with their life.

school is about increasing the general level of education in society, which is a necessity for today's workforce.

How much schooling would be compulsory under your proposed system?

What qualifications and/or research do you have to make claims as to what category people fit in, and that they cannot change "category" with the influence of carefully planned schooling?

Also could you flesh out your system, because at the moment all it seems to be is 'hurr you dont have to go to school' expand it for me.

I see your point, a 12 year old would most likely struggle in a real work place. So how about more general places of education? Except just having 'school' have a place where people can learn the basics of an industry, and enter the real industry as soon as possible.

And the only reason we think a 12 year old in the workplace is ridiculous is because of school, because their mind has only progressed to 'grade 7', not 'twelves years of age'.

yeah society has a responsibility to people, and that's why we have laws protecting minors from certain things considered dangerous to people, and giving them a fair go in life, and i think schooling is a big part of that. Yes the government does hold our hand till we're 16 (that's the new legal age you have to be at school till) but it's the most practical solution we've got... for now.

My research was spread over 12 years of observing the people around me at school.

And I made those generalisations to keep it simple. I don't see how it is 'arrogant'.

Except just having 'school' have a place where people can learn the basics of an industry, and enter the real industry as soon as possible.

What like an apprenticeship to become a carpenter or training to become a doctor?

So again a 12 year old has to have some idea what they want to do.

What like an apprenticeship to become a carpenter or training to become a doctor?

Yes, but generally what kind of people are doing that sort of thing (not the doctor)? The 'school dropouts'. These are the people who gave school a shot, it didn't work for them, and now at the age of 16 or over they are only beginning to enter the industry.

I think people should be given the chance to enter an industry or trade at a much earlier age than that, of which the exact number I haven't really decided yet.

fpot its like u went through all my year 12 english assignments and compiled them all into one :)

I personally know at least two published authors who attended university..


Also:

JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Nick Earles (To be closer to home)

Yeh, fkn tertiary trap.

I guess for the slower people out there, I should point out that what I said doesn't universally apply to everyone.

Well it doesn't really matter because due to your lack of education in the necessary areas, you would never be allowed to contribute to educational rulings.

Kind of ironic eh?

It's ironic, yes. But is it right?

My research was spread over 12 years of observing the people around me at school.

Research? I didnt know you were qualified in human behavior and psychology?

And I made those generalisations to keep it simple. I don't see how it is 'arrogant'.

It is arrogant because you are passing judgement on other people, on a girl who made a couple of mistakes in english or writing off 'dumb' people.

There is a tiny amount of people for which school doesnt work and which taking them out may be the best thing, but for the vast vast majority it is a good thing.

The way your initial post tells it, it sounds like tertiary education necessarily prevents people from becoming (specifically) great authors.

I'm only hitting that part because that's about as far as I got before I figured out what a silly post it was. I always try and give things a few paragraphs to get good.

Argh, don't say "amount of people"!

It's "number of people"!

People don't come in amounts!

/end Nazi mode

Research? I didnt know you were qualified in human behavior and psychology?

I didn't know you had to be. I am sure you have 'researched' many things you aren't qualified for.

It is arrogant because you are passing judgement on other people, on a girl who made a couple of mistakes in english or writing off 'dumb' people.

She was actually quite intelligent, but only because of school. I don't really know what she's doing now, some uni course I think. My problem wasn't with her, it was with the system that allowed that assignment and many other like it to achieve high marks that they didn't deserve.

Plus, when I said 'dumb' people, I specifically said the reasons why I thought they were dumb, such as driving cars stupidly and abusing drugs. How would you describe that behaviour?

Yeah I got weird marks in School. Some time I got A's other times I failed but I think thats mostly because if I had a teacher I didn't get along with I just wouldn't do any work. I hate teachers that put you in a group like he's a B student or she's an A and no matter what you do you can never get out of their first perception of you.

In grade 10 I hated my English teacher and I'm pretty sure the feelings were mutual. I rarely would go to class and when I did I would completely egnore him (even when he was red in the face and had spittle flying out of his mouth because I wouldn't answer his questions). One day in class we were suppose to do a childrens book for assessment, so I did it and surprise, surprise, I failed.

Latter when one of my mums freinds who was also a teacher and a published writer read it she was so blown away by it that she wanted me to publish it. Ofcourse being 15 I didn't think that having a kids book with my name on it would do anything for my image so I declined. Now... I just whish I could remember what it was that I had written :(

School was crap ...
Not sure why, was just crap

I wasnt stupid, A student .. but left start of Yr11

Ps. nuke tungs posts when he posted, hes one bias mofo

Argh, don't say "amount of people"!

It's "number of people"!

People don't come in amounts!

haha you're right! the system has failed me, scrap the whole thing!

I read the couple of paragraphs of that first post.

Not sure if that puts me in the first or second category.

To have any real discussion on this you're going have to flesh out the system to me.

Does the kid get to choose if they get to leave?

What age are they allowed to leave?

Are they allowed to leave and do nothing?

Also, it is a typical attitude for people to go off in wild tangents with accusations of arrogance and 'omg you aren't qualified to say that!@!@!'. I am well aware that what I just said wasn't fact, it was simply an observation. To me it is a common trait of group 3 people to read something, and not be able to seperate opinion from fact.

And in the end, all I was proposing was an alternative to school, not the complete destruction of the system.

way too much reading.. did i fail ?

Does the kid get to choose if they get to leave?

Yes.

What age are they allowed to leave?

Haven't decided, as I said.

Are they allowed to leave and do nothing?

No.

dont say people, say taco is, also oh nos youve put me in the group 3, the people you have the highest disdain for.

Basically from what im reading you point of view can be summed up with: 'School isnt for everyone and there should be some other options for kids who dont fit into the program' and i agree.

What I dont agree with is your contempt for uni's (and yes im sure that is partly because im a university student) and the sureness of your post when you're only basing it on your own little playground.

What I dont agree with is your contempt for uni's (and yes im sure that is partly because im a university student) and the sureness of your post when you're only basing it on your own little playground.

I'll grant you that one. I guess I am not really in a position to comment on uni, but I still think quite a few people's minds would be 'altered' by it, for better or worse.

Anyway, I have to go to bed now. I have to be up at 5:40am !&#*()!#&(*)!#

Laters :)

I didn't read many of the replies to this post. I don't think it needs much discussion. It was an intelligently and concisely put rant :)
I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with fpot however i'd like to say it was a good read. Tops fpot.

Ok well you have your naturally smart people who can do without school to some extent.

What about the other people then? The ones who have to study their ass off. Whithout school they wouldn't get anywhere.

And imagine the dumb people - they'd be living with the apes if they didn't at least face some education.

Some education is necessary. English and Maths especially. Biology is a great subject and teaches you about life. Economics and geography also give you valuable knowledge.

Every subject is useful, but only to the right person. I think it's more important that a person chooses their subjects well for them to be useful.

I'm three years out and I sort of miss school. Life was much simpler back then. But I miss primary school more than high school : )

Basically it all comes down to people doing what they can to make their way through their life.

Agree with everything there.

I think when kids hit grade 11 more windows of oppurtunity need to be open to them or atleast shown to them. Kids need to know there is mroe to life then finishing mark. We all place so much emphasis on that end mark and that it will guide the rest of our lives. What about the kid who wants to work with cars? He loves them, spends all his time with them and will obviously go on to be a mechanic. Why should he be forced into believing he needs a year 12 ending certificate?

What I dont agree with is your contempt for uni's (and yes im sure that is partly because im a university student) and the sureness of your post when you're only basing it on your own little playground.

I'll come at this from 3 places...

Place 1, the whole experience thing that you speak of, eg being within the system..

Place 2, University and the virtues it has taught me about the types of people that are judged to suceed in society

Place 3, Workplace.. eg the classroom...

Ok, Experience, Some people will just suceed, no matter what they do they will suceed.. Think of it as a 100m running race.. To suceed is to cross the finish line. You fpot may start at the start line however alot of people will start 10m down the track, 20m down the track, some people will start 99.99m down the track basically they will do this because of who they are, who their parents are and what type of culture they are brought up and into..

Its a fact of life unfortunately... Now I'm not saying that you aren't deserving to finish the race, no way, you may be the smartest man in the world ever... BUT because of where you are and who you are you will never get the attention you need, the furtherment of your thoughts etc that you need to be able to reach your full potential (eg 100m - finish line) Because thats what we're all about isn't it? Reaching the most that we have wether it be physical playing sport, mental through our endevours or social getting married etc.. We aim to reach the best of our abilities...

Phase 2, Uni -- Leading on from above, university doesn't cater for everyone... Its a long factory assembly line that aims to produce a set number of common characteristics among ppl who do a degree... There is no real personal face to university its a large faceless corporation that aims to produce a series of drones to work in hi-level employment making the cogs of society turn blah blah blah...

At the end of the day Uni doesn't care if you are achieving at your best... Tutors/lecturers don't give a rats if you don't put in the "effort" to get far in your life they're chasing the buck as much as the uni is....

Uni does one thing incredibly well above and beyond anything else in the world, it shows the world for what it is.. You will only get out of uni what you put into it... There is no MRS JONES RIDING YOU INTO THE GROUND TO FINISH THE ASSIGNMENT ON TIME.. no one cares, you do it or not, its your life and you make the choices...

Phase 3, Classroom... As I said earlier, you can't reach your full potential unless some people are there to help you out, guide you, lead you whatever.. Put you on the right track that will mean you get the best out of the assets you have...

Grim reality is the system may miss you, hell its highly likely the system will miss you because its trying to cater for so many children/people at the same time, trying to incorporate cultural minorities, special needs, learning disabilities, behaviour problems, ever changing governmental policey, school policey, community expectations and parental influences... fact of the matter is you may well be lost in the huge whitewash that is the education system only to resurface about yr 12 when uni comes a knocking...

Its not a matter of hating school, its a matter of realising that the system is letting you down which is pretty terrible... You know that you're not getting the attention because as you said ppl who are mucking around, ppl who are just plain stupid etc are taking away your "learning" time...

Life isn't fair and will never be.

Deal with it.

Sort your problems out yourself.

^Deal with it.^

With suicide

Nice read fpot in regards to your observation, at least some people think of things more than just sex, sex and more sex..

I agree with some points but you will need a bit more experience to sway people to believe your system as everyone has said...

As your in grade 12, you simply can't comment in regards to uni, its good for some people not so good for others, just like high school...

Also as I can see, you have never worked full time in the real workforce, as I don't work full time myself, but work at casually at an Internet Firm, I can see that sometimes full time people just can't do what they like (or dreamed of), you need to get paid cause of things, say a kid came along, you really wanted to start a life (house, car etc..) and just put off your dreams...

Another thing, you imply some people should do what they like, OK i love basketball, still do, was pretty good at it, reached QLD State Level, and really wanted to become PRO, but... I was never tall enough or that really really good, so sometimes you have to make a choice in life, I didn't want to play at the local courts all my life, hence my TAFE Diploma and University....

That is my observation for the last 21 years, I had your same observation when I was in grade 12, classifing people etc..

So good on you for actually thinking about stuff past schoolies, and I believe you will go far with your mindset, not to follow the normal path, because the greatest minds and people in this world were absolutely different from the regular person...

;)

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/forumfun/whocares4.jpg

well said fpot!

btw, i fall into the "un-cool" and "naturally stupid" groups. yay, school was a f***ing blast for me :/

cool.
so where are the dragons?

I used to have a photographic memory, you could say something and I wouldn't need to write it down, weeks later I'd still remember it. Now I'm lucky if I remember stuff 10 minutes later. I don't smoke, I'm not a heavy drinker, in fact I hardly drink at all. I used to be really good at school, but towards the end just....gave up. I couldn't study, couldn't think, did really s*** at tests, couldn't remember one damn thing from the lesson before. I think my brain is seriously f***ed up.

lol, yeah whoopass same here, it seems to get worse as the years go on too :S:S not good...


anyways - i pretty much agree with fpot, but i think a better way would be for schools to somehow "grade" how well u understand stuff, not how well u memorise it which is what they are heading for nowadays

as for my school exp. - i think i was one of the naturally smart ppl , not a genius, but i could work stuff out on my own and did fairly well with all my classes without studying/doing hw (yeah - i got away without doing any maths b or physics homework for 2 years at a private school...) anyways, it was really annoying how at the end of gr12 we got given a number (OP for the slow ones ^_^...) and that automatically defined how smart u were...i saw wayyy too many ppl who had just studied and memorise get OP 1-5 when i wouldnt even consider them smart at all (however some ppl are good at disguising it so as to avoid group 1...)

i would also like to point out that most of the ppl objecting to fpots post are probably in group 3 (altho i think something similar was said, donno - didnt read all previous posts, just skimmed)

anyways, theres my 2c

Anyone here went to Mt.Gravatt SHS and did IPT and had Mr Parry as the teacher for that subject ?

The year 99/00 was the best schooling years for me. If any of youse had him then im sure you'll know what im talking about. I really cbf to explain the insanity of that class, but they will remain memories for a long time.

I can see how you could miss school fairly easily.

School was just blisfully simple, you had something you were expected to do each day and beyonf that nothing, you didn't have to take any REAL responsibility for yourself, no real worries at all, everything catered for for you.

When you hit uni, you're expected to take responsibility for yourself, you have to do all sorts of things. I presume that as life advances there are even more things I'll have to worry about.

Sometimes it just seems as if it would be easier to move to China and spend the rest of my life teaching english :)

Well, on the subject of school stuff I'd like to mention www.brainbench.com Heaps of certificates etc... from book keeping to IT and Health.

They cost from $50+ but are well worth it, they also recommend books and offer services to help you teach yourself.

If you don't like the school system, this might help you.

Companies like lots of certificates, even if they are eye candy Win 95 admin or Naviagtion... but even better is the MSCE etc..

Enjoy.

Mt.Gravatt SHS and did IPT and had Mr Parry

Nah, Mr Walsh was a great teacher!

to me
copious means an ‘excessively amount’.

Copious simply means a large number in quantity.

I tried to explain this to her, but her
school conditioned mind couldn’t see the error

This could be because there was no error.
The context she used it in was entirely correct, it could mean 'alot of' or 'excessive'..
Regardless of the context she meant, it was a legitimate word to use.

cause its the same s*** every single f***ing day

got that right

school was awesome and easy
anything who thinks otherwise got it wrong

Fpot - Now that I have finished school I too have grown wiser. What if we had never started?

school was f***ing cool, once you hit yr 11 anyway.

sifnt spending all day sitting around with your boys planning on ways to fight the system :D

Huh? This is the silliest post I've seen, you said that school is pointless and there is alot of people who you classified "dumb" just because they fool around. Ok, could you imagine how many more dumb people there would be if there wasn't any schools?

The population of "dumb" people would be greater. For some occasions school even helps, what society considers the young adults, to become mature more.

I know I've changed alot since even the beginning of this year, and I think it's because you start to realize that it IS your last year of school, and next year you have to do something different from what you've done for the past 12 years.

For some part, I'll miss school - but without school i wouldnt be the person i am today, if not the education; then i think you learn alot of other things from school.

SO if you think schooling is useless then you are stupid, and its people like you who NEED to be put in school, the people who need to benefit from schooling aspects if not for the benefit of learning.

I think that school should more be focused on social development, and learning processes, rather then actually "learning".



Two bags full if you think I'm a tosser .. you're probably even more so.

This thread compelled me to let out that i never went to highschool. my parents realised my hatred or laziness was too great for school.

It happened in yr 6, about 1 month before years end, i was happily letting my mouth off to whoever i please. A teacher spots me - letting off sexual insults to a group of girls i was doing some activity with. to me this was normal, but to the teacher it was outrageous.

I was reported to the princible and my parents called. My parents are great, told the princible to go f*** himself and instead of getting expelled, i left.

Didnt bother going to high school, how did we repel the State education? Requested a homeschooling course. Of course i was too lazy to do it, so i spent those years on the net, learning and playing mmorpgs (regret that)

Somehow i just cant learn from a teacher, i need to research and learn things myself.

Most people think im stupid once i tell them this, but when i dont, im told i am very intelligent.

Hey, ive turned out alright. i think? im 19 now.

2) The naturally intelligent.

Yes I hated those people (or rather jealous :)). I know this guy, he used to sleep in Math II classes, but somehow he managed to get VHA.... I studied (not that hard mind you) but just passed. Maybe he secretly studying at home or something.. :(.

3) Minds conditioned to be ‘smart’.

Don't know a people like these myself. I know people that worked thier arses off to get good grades though and they are pretty smart and deserved thier grades.


Personally, I don't know which group I belonged to. I wasn't a nerdy kid, nor I was a cool kid though I could blend in with both groups. That's probably why I quite enjoyed the school experience myself.

If I was given the choice to go back in time and redo my school, I'd do it again. Not a lot of worries you know , go to school, study (may be ;)), socialised. Mind you in my years we didn't have as much pressure on us either by peer group or parental so perhaps that's why I enjoyed it.

Personally, I wouldn't want to be a teenager in these days and age, as they are faced with huge amount of pressure upon them -- I mean you will have to *know* what you wanted to be/do when you're 10 or less otherwise you've missed the boat?!@# I mean that's not how to raise your child, like some sports star are starting at what age now? 5-6 ? and they turn pros when they're like 16?!@# Man I still remember when I was 16, I was just being a kid running around with my friends no worries in the world.

Damn I sounded like my parent....

The unforunate reality of growing old is you WILL turn into your parents to some degree. I'm with you Opec, when I was a lad kid all you really worried about was, well f*** all really. So long as your grades where ok you went to college, perhaps thats just a middle class up bringing myth, apart from that I played Rugby got drunk and stoned on weekends after the match, tried my hardest to convince my girlfriends to have sex, thats about it.

i think that in primary school i fell under the 3rd one and the 1st group but since i have come to high school i am in group1

school isnt the be all and end all however;

i did 12 years of school (found it mind numbling easy)
5 years of uni (found that substantially harder coz it wasnt spoonfed to me)
and now earn a healthy living in the IT field

the missus, never finished year 10;
worked her ass off in various deadend jobs before she came across accounting/bookkeeping
did some tafe and now rocks the show running the debt collecting at her place of work;
and earns a piddly bit less than i do;

hard work can be substitute for qualification (sometimes, and woman works damn hard)

I liked school up until year 4 then things just went down hill... i did alright but just hated everyone and everything - High school was the pits because i went to the dreaded ALL HALLOWS' fek that i left in year 11. I don't regret leaving but i now am going to have to do year 11 and 12 at hendra or something - shouldn't be too hard cause i got a brain and know how to use it.

pfft, i think everything you just ranted about is classic generalised bulls***, what you need to do is build a bridge and get over it.

i agree with alot of what you wrote fpot. school didnt do much for me, sure a few things came in 'handy' (such as maths a & multistrand science) and accounting helped purely because i'm self employed. but no subject helped me to get the job(s) i have today.

i reckon that i'm just not academicly skilled. however if i can place my hands on it and manuliplate it myself, chances are i'll be good at it. hence i have alot of musical ability and spend alot of time surrounded by music and related industries (audio & lighting concert production).

education simply didnt cater for that, sans for the 6mths of TAFE i did, where i learnt more than i did in my final 2 years in high school. primary school and even the first few years of high school teach alot of basic everyday stuff that you simply need to learn to not be a total dumbass, but the last 2-3 years can be totally pointless for alot of people.

i've worked in retail & entertainment for 5 years now, and majority of the people i meet didnt do well at school, but are very good at their chosen jobs and happy doing them.

because i went to the dreaded ALL HALLOWS' fek that i left in year 11

haha what year would u have graduated? i know sevearl girls who graduated in 2002

NICE BUMP

cause its the same s*** every single f***ing day


got that right

err WTF! i didn't post that and thats my old nickname and my old gay sig WTF

DEAR GOD there's a 1337 H4X0R on the loose

last edited by threE deE at 20:09:00 15/Sep/04