RIP School Survival Forums
August 2001 - June 2017
The School Survival Forums are permanently retired. If you need help with quitting school, unsupportive parents or anything else, there is a list of resources on the Help Page.
If you want to write about your experiences in school, you can write on our blog.
To everyone who joined these forums at some point, and got discouraged by the negativity and left after a while (or even got literally scared off): I'm sorry.
I wasn't good enough at encouraging people to be kinder, and removing people who refuse to be kind. Encouraging people is hard, and removing people creates conflict, and I hate conflict... so that's why I wasn't better at it.
I was a very, very sensitive teen. The atmosphere of this forum as it is now, if it had existed in 1996, would probably have upset me far more than it would have helped.
I can handle quite a lot of negativity and even abuse now, but that isn't the point. I want to help people. I want to help the people who need it the most, and I want to help people like the 1996 version of me.
I'm still figuring out the best way to do that, but as it is now, these forums are doing more harm than good, and I can't keep running them.
Thank you to the few people who have tried to understand my point of view so far. I really, really appreciate you guys. You are beautiful people.
Everyone else: If after everything I've said so far, you still don't understand my motivations, I think it's unlikely that you will. We're just too different. Maybe someday in the future it might make sense, but until then, there's no point in arguing about it. I don't have the time or the energy for arguing anymore. I will focus my time and energy on people who support me, and those who need help.
-SoulRiser
The forums are mostly read-only and are in a maintenance/testing phase, before being permanently archived. Please use this time to get the contact details of people you'd like to keep in touch with.
My contact details are here.
Please do not make a mirror copy of the forums in their current state - things will still change, and some people have requested to be able to edit or delete some of their personal info.
Thread Rating:
- 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
|
Personal growth
|
| Author |
Message |
Hannah-chan
Revolutionary
Posts: 252
Joined: Feb 2011
Thanks: 0
Given 3 thank(s) in 2 post(s)
|
Personal growth
First, an anecdote.
I was saying in another thread that I had a rough time through my schooling; It started with a terrible bully for a teacher, which meant for the rest of my time at that school - from Year 3 (Which is fourth grade for you Amerifags) to Year 8 (Ninth grade) I was an emotional, depressed wreck with no friends or self-confidence. I moved schools, and things got better - I was still an emotional, depressed wreck, but I did have friends and a modicum of respect for myself.
It took me a long time to regain what I lost, but you know what?
School made me so much stronger.
With a week left, I feel like I can take whatever the 'real world' throws at me. There will still be assholes. There will still be bullies. There will still be injustice. and I'm okay with that.
I've had the last laugh. I have friends, good relations with my family, a meaningful relationship, and I feel good about myself. I think I can afford to be proud.
I'm not saying that I'm pro-school now. I'm saying that it is a very tough way to spend eleven years of your life, but it's made me a better person, and I'm really thankful for that.
I'd like to know what you guys think about this thesis - that the faults of the school system can actually shape brilliant people. They don't have to enjoy it, but it works. Neither am I saying that people who go the other way - and become sheep of society- are a good thing. But there's more than one possible outcome to this. Weak people buckle under the pressure and do as they are told. But people like us, we take that constant conditioning and we turn it against the state, and become brilliant people who can think for themselves AND deal with persecution.
BRITISH MEMBER
![[Image: BritishFlag.jpg]](http://www.german-english-translator.com/BritishFlag.jpg)
BaronVonStrangle Wrote:If I hear a plumber/construction worker/carpenter/whatever say "I'm a hard worker" and the make-up addled plastic bitch replies with "I'll bet that's not the only thing that's hard" ONE MORE TIME
|
|
| 05-02-2011 06:00 PM |
|
 Thanks given by: | |
|
Faby
work in progress
Posts: 3,446
Joined: Mar 2008
Thanks: 3
Given 61 thank(s) in 45 post(s)
|
Re: Personal growth
Well, I can easily say you're amongst the luckier ones.
Most people, when confronted with a life like you have led, become cynical, embittered shells, choosing to forsake altogether the good sides to things.
Let go of all desire for the common good, and the good becomes common as grass.
~~
Good fortune follows upon disaster;
Disaster lurks within good fortune;
Who can say how things will end?
Perhaps there is no end.
|
|
| 05-02-2011 11:03 PM |
|
| Thanks given by: | |
|
Hannah-chan
Revolutionary
Posts: 252
Joined: Feb 2011
Thanks: 0
Given 3 thank(s) in 2 post(s)
|
Re: Personal growth
My life hasn't been that bad, at all. I don't want sympathy or anything like that - there are way, way worse things to experience. Yeah, some people DO become shadows of their former selves, but I guess I am just lucky I haven't.
BRITISH MEMBER
BaronVonStrangle Wrote:If I hear a plumber/construction worker/carpenter/whatever say "I'm a hard worker" and the make-up addled plastic bitch replies with "I'll bet that's not the only thing that's hard" ONE MORE TIME
|
|
| 05-03-2011 02:06 AM |
|
| Thanks given by: | |
|
SoulRiser
Site Founder
Posts: 18,240
Joined: Aug 2001
Thanks: 2669
Given 1978 thank(s) in 1208 post(s)
|
Re: Personal growth
Well, I learned a lot because of school (as opposed to from it)... so yeah, it can shape you for better or for worse. If it wasn't for school and all the bullies, I wouldn't have had so many issues to overcome. And if I didn't have all those issues to overcome, I'd be really different today. Not sure in what way though. Probably not a good way, actually, I think I'd be a bitch or something... because if it wasn't for all those bullies, I would never have made the decision to stand up for people who are being picked on... because I wouldn't have a clue what that's like.
So yeah, bad things need to happen to people so that they can become stronger so that they can help other people going through bad things... and if life was all rainbows and happiness, it'd be boring 'cause there'd be nothing worthwhile to work towards.
"If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them." - Dalai Lama
Help & Support - Get help with leaving school, unsupportive parents, and more.
Click here if school makes you depressed or suicidal
Support School Survival on Patreon or Donate Bitcoin Here: 1Q5WCcxWjayniaL92b8GfXBiGdfjmnUNa2
"Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it." - André Paul Guillaume Gide
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination." - Albert Einstein
"I'm pretty sure there's a lot of beauty that can only be found in the mind of a lunatic." - TheCancer
EIPD - Emotionally Incompetent Parent Disorder
Push Button for Collection of Useful Links:
|
|
| 05-03-2011 03:29 AM |
|
| Thanks given by: | |
|
HeartofShadows
Fanatic
Posts: 8,557
Joined: Dec 2006
Thanks: 0
Given 80 thank(s) in 73 post(s)
|
Re: Personal growth
Faby Wrote:Well, I can easily say you're amongst the luckier ones.
Most people, when confronted with a life like you have led, become cynical, embittered shells, choosing to forsake altogether the good sides to things.
On topic glad you've grown up Hannah.
I can agree with what your saying as struggle tends to bring out the potential in people so they can not only survive but excel.
"Yes there is pain in life, loss and sorrow but there is also joy and the pleasures of growing and learning. You can't have one without the other. I wouldn't want to sacrifice either."
Virgil, Arcanum
![[Image: WARZONES_subs_hostility.png]](http://s17.postimage.org/se7v7oetb/WARZONES_subs_hostility.png)
image hosting jpg
|
|
| 05-03-2011 06:14 AM |
|
| Thanks given by: | |
|
Absnt
Fanatic
Posts: 6,075
Joined: Dec 2009
Thanks: 13
Given 184 thank(s) in 127 post(s)
|
Re: Personal growth
I don't think it's just school that presents this, either. It's life in general. If you can overcome the issues of daily life, and get over them, and excel within them, you become stronger.
"What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger" comes to mind. I don't always agree with this, but it's true for some people.
I guess it depends on your mindset, and your drive. Mentally, overcoming difficult obstacles is a good way to build mental strength...
If you had said "we need school to create mentally tough individuals" i'd definitely of disagreed with you though. Life in general is pretty tough, and school isn't really all THAT much harder. There are always obstacles. School just happens to be one of the obstacles that I find to be utterly without physical gain, or intellectual importance. Twelve plus years is a bit much just to gain some mental toughness, especially since it only gives some people that toughness.
I think.
Blog I post to now:
http://blog.darknedgy.net
Edfreedom.org -- An organization for more freedom in education.
http://www.edfreedom.org/join-us/
|
|
| 05-04-2011 12:29 PM |
|
| Thanks given by: | |
|
SH☮TGUNHEⒶRT
Hi, I 'm anti-civ.
Posts: 775
Joined: Mar 2011
Thanks: 0
Given 9 thank(s) in 8 post(s)
|
Re: Personal growth
I learned how totally fucked up everything is and how humanity is doomed by observing school.
To be an anarchist, is to suffer greatly. To be a black woman is to suffer secretly. To be the earth, is to suffer silently.
I wish no harm on anyone, but those whose harmful ways will not stop without the same harm.
It's time we kill this cancerous system, before it kills us and everything left of gaia. Rise from our immaturity and take back our autonomy!
![[Image: 2010-10-04-lost-my-appetite.jpg]](http://www.stephaniemcmillan.org/codegreen/comics/2010-10-04-lost-my-appetite.jpg)
|
|
| 05-08-2011 02:28 AM |
|
| Thanks given by: | |
|
Hannah-chan
Revolutionary
Posts: 252
Joined: Feb 2011
Thanks: 0
Given 3 thank(s) in 2 post(s)
|
|
| 05-08-2011 02:36 AM |
|
| Thanks given by: | |
|
LOON_ATTIC
A NERD
Posts: 5,158
Joined: May 2009
Thanks: 9
Given 60 thank(s) in 49 post(s)
|
Re: Personal growth
Guess so, though we'll never be perfect. There'll always be power struggles and leaders and explotation and lack of freedom and shit.
![[Image: glorious666.png]](http://darknedgy.net/images/glorious666.png)
|
|
| 05-08-2011 05:38 AM |
|
| Thanks given by: | |
|
User(s) browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)
Search
Member List
Calendar
Help
/
Personal growth
