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FUCKSchoolKCUF · 01-22-2015 06:56 PM

Hello, fellow School Survival forum-ers. Let me properly introduce myself. My name is Michael, I'm 14 years old, and I live in Southern California. I joined this forum after getting completely fed up with school and all of its problems. I am very, very grateful that such a forum exists where I can let out all of my school-related anger and not be seen as a "confused teenager".

Now, here's just a fraction of what I think of America's education system:

I'm not going to complain about the petty things that most people my age point out, such as waking up early, the smelly bus, questionable food, etc. etc. I'm here to say all of the REAL problems. First of all, it's forced labor. No, Ms. Jones, I don't want to write a 3 page essay about stuff I could care less about. No, I don't want to do 40 questions out of a dated textbook. No, I don't want to dissect a dead animal without even wearing gloves. But guess what? I have to, otherwise my "grades" will suffer, leading to my next point. Grades.

Grades are the worst, worst, WORST way to determine someone's intelligence. I am a lazy person, but I'm not dumb. I am a person who needs to learn on my own pace, and self-motivation. And because of that, I get straight Fs. Yes, I said it. I get straight Fs, and everybody assumes that I'm stupid because of that. No, I don't consider myself to be stupid. In fact, when I actually want to learn about something other than bullcrap being forced down my throat, I actually educate myself thoroughly on the subject to the point where I'm almost an expert. But the school doesn't care. They'll give me Fs for not caring about what they "teach". Grades are broken. They're a broken mess and need to be fixed, well, actually totally revamped. Instead of having useless information shoved down our throats, they should let us learn on our own pace and pick our own subjects that interest us, and just leave 2 subjects that people have to take: Math and English. Now, I don't know about your school, but at mine, they FORCE us to take an elective of THEIR choice. I was put into Ceramics against my will, a subject that I show NO interest in, and after trying to change it to a technology class, they refused and said that I MUST be in Ceramics. Yes, I ended up failing that class. I told the school officials that I care less about Indian Pot Making, and they refused to change it and let me fail. Instead of this, we should pick our own electives, and NEVER be FORCED to take something we HATE. Maybe my grades will improve if I'm in a class that actually interests me.

My third and final major point, the entire concept of school. If you look past the "learning", It's just a government facility that forces children to go there and follow the crowd of losers and never be different or creative. If you disagree with their ideas, you're deemed as a confused teenager and that you'll "get over the fad". Fuck this. Before school, I was a happy little boy who loved to draw and play with technology. After getting home from school today, I am an angry sack of shit ranting on a forum.

I feel better getting that off of my chest.

xcriteria · 01-22-2015 08:59 PM

Welcome to the forums. As you might expect, I agree with your criticisms of school.

With grades in particular, if you haven't seen it, check out this thread and article:

Mark Barnes: 7 Reasons teachers should stop grading their students forever

Also, re: going from being "a happy little boy who loved to draw and play with technology," to your current experience of life, check out what David Preston says at this timestamped link in a much longer hangout. (Feel free to listen to the whole thing... it shows some of the many adults, even highly-credentialed adults in education, who see how messed up school-as-usual is.)

http://youtu.be/RSCvAe65zDU?t=35m42s

"When I work with young children, I see the energy and the question-asking. I dropped down from UCLA to teach in a high school, because I thought it would be important to capture people earlier, because my clients in the private sector, and my UCLA students, all regularly complained about K-12, just to succeed in their sense of self, and their careers, and their lives. It's very hard to over-state how much damage is being done, from kindergarten to high school, and how reluctant students are to be themselves, or take any sort of risk, that involves being outspoken in class, or writing on a paper, and they don't see the value in what they're doing."

There are more noteworthy bits in that hangout, and many other videos, articles, and talks, that all express parallel views that something is very wrong with the sort of misery-and-boredom-based schooling so many people have come to expect as the norm.

RE: classes, if someone takes a class they don't know if they'll enjoy, why does school force them to complete a semester of it? Why can't people spend a day, or a week, on a topic, and decide, hey, this isn't working, let's try something else? Not to mention when so many opportunities for learning are available, for free, online and out in the world.

Anyway, thanks for saying hi, and I'm looking forward to hearing more about your thoughts and experiences.

Btw, any idea of what you might do going forward? If you could quit school, what would you like to do instead?

Any chance your parents might be open to alternatives, especially given how poorly school seems to be working out?

eerie138 · 01-22-2015 09:20 PM

(01-22-2015 06:56 PM)FUCKSchoolKCUF Wrote: I'll never amount to anything. I know I'm not going to make it in a college. School just isn't for me, and my life will fail because of it.

I hope you don't truly believe this. You don't have to believe all the negatives that people are shoving down your throat. There is a lot of support here for you and if you're able to turn a deaf ear to the BS you can start to think about pursuing the things that you love to do--the things that make you happy. Don't let this destoy your spirit.

Have you talked to your parents about this? If so, how do they respond?

BTW
I, too, totally agree with everything else you've said about school.

xcriteria · 01-22-2015 09:27 PM

@eerie138, thanks for highlighting that.

@FUCKSchoolKCUF, just what you wrote above shows that you have a lot of insight and potential. You can learn all kinds of things whether or not you go to college. And, you can succeed with or without school, if you find other ways to learn, figure out who you are, and connect with like-minded people.

There are so many ways to do those things, beyond the flawed idea that "school is the only path to success."

brainiac3397 · 01-23-2015 03:24 AM

hello

**SoulRiser** · 01-23-2015 08:15 AM

Welcome to SS Smile

Quote:Before school, I was a happy little boy who loved to draw and play with technology. After getting home from school today, I am an angry sack of shit ranting on a forum. I'll never amount to anything. I know I'm not going to make it in a college. School just isn't for me, and my life will fail because of it.

Not true at all... school/college/9-5 job is only one way to do life... there are others. And you can still do the 9-5 thing even without school.

Designer/artsy type jobs/careers tend to not really care so much about college and grades anyway.

FUCKSchoolKCUF · 01-23-2015 08:46 AM

Thanks everybody for all of the support. What I said earlier about my life never amounting to anything, I do not actually mean. It was midnight, I was really tired and fed up with school when I wrote the post, so I do apologize for that. I think I can do anything I can set my mind to, even without school.

lisafromjackson · 01-24-2015 01:32 PM

That's good to hear. It's kind've an emotional roller-coaster ride, being in school.

MurkScribe · 01-25-2015 06:21 AM

Well actually yeah that's definitely true about the waking up early part is a petty shallow reason to hate school, even though I really do hate waking up early. But nonetheless, welcome to SS

James Comey · 01-25-2015 02:18 PM

*Sees avatar is Dr. Dre's "The Chronic"*

Oooh, we'll get along quite well!

Welcome aboard!

James Comey · 01-25-2015 02:26 PM

(01-22-2015 06:56 PM)FUCKSchoolKCUF Wrote: Hello, fellow School Survival forum-ers. Let me properly introduce myself. My name is Michael, I'm 14 years old, and I live in Southern California. I joined this forum after getting completely fed up with school and all of its problems. I am very, very grateful that such a forum exists where I can let out all of my school-related anger and not be seen as a "confused teenager".

Again, as I said, welcome aboard. I'm also a fellow School Survivor in California (I'm marooned up in the SF Bay Area though).

I too am pretty much completely fed up with school, but I've gotten to the point where I see the system not for the good but rather as an actual evil that needs to be eradicated. You're lucky enough to just be seen as a "confused teenager" (although that labeling is bad enough because it assumes teen problems somehow aren't real problems, and teen depression is very real). I actually was labelled as being less than human because I couldn't comply with the system. The strictness of the system, as well as the expected norms and the sociology, are a toxic mix.

(01-22-2015 06:56 PM)FUCKSchoolKCUF Wrote: Now, here's just a fraction of what I think of America's education system:

I'm not going to complain about the petty things that most people my age point out, such as waking up early, the smelly bus, questionable food, etc. etc. I'm here to say all of the REAL problems. First of all, it's forced labor. No, Ms. Jones, I don't want to write a 3 page essay about stuff I could care less about. No, I don't want to do 40 questions out of a dated textbook. No, I don't want to dissect a dead animal without even wearing gloves. But guess what? I have to, otherwise my "grades" will suffer, leading to my next point. Grades.

Well, even those petty problems are actually more legitimate. The only reason people write them off is because they don't experience them anymore, but there definitely have to be better ways beyond misery-based ways of learning and teaching.

As many others have said, school is essentially day prison. You're given very little freedom, choice, some bad circumstances and little room to navigate, and you don't like it.

(01-22-2015 06:56 PM)FUCKSchoolKCUF Wrote: Grades are the worst, worst, WORST way to determine someone's intelligence. I am a lazy person, but I'm not dumb. I am a person who needs to learn on my own pace, and self-motivation. And because of that, I get straight Fs. Yes, I said it. I get straight Fs, and everybody assumes that I'm stupid because of that. No, I don't consider myself to be stupid. In fact, when I actually want to learn about something other than bullcrap being forced down my throat, I actually educate myself thoroughly on the subject to the point where I'm almost an expert. But the school doesn't care. They'll give me Fs for not caring about what they "teach". Grades are broken. They're a broken mess and need to be fixed, well, actually totally revamped. Instead of having useless information shoved down our throats, they should let us learn on our own pace and pick our own subjects that interest us, and just leave 2 subjects that people have to take: Math and English. Now, I don't know about your school, but at mine, they FORCE us to take an elective of THEIR choice. I was put into Ceramics against my will, a subject that I show NO interest in, and after trying to change it to a technology class, they refused and said that I MUST be in Ceramics. Yes, I ended up failing that class. I told the school officials that I care less about Indian Pot Making, and they refused to change it and let me fail. Instead of this, we should pick our own electives, and NEVER be FORCED to take something we HATE. Maybe my grades will improve if I'm in a class that actually interests me.

Ah, grades. Grades can go suck the big one.

Grades are inaccurate because all it shows is how much you're willing to comply to a broken system and how many pieces of papers (or whatever) you turned in. What's worse about grades is that grades don't ask for understanding (which should be a major part of learning), but answers. It's a bad mentality to teach.

And you're right on about subject matter. I was always terrible in math, but it didn't mean I was dumb. I always had passionate interest in geography, history, etc but it seems that one major misstep in a subject and it's doom and gloom.

(01-22-2015 06:56 PM)FUCKSchoolKCUF Wrote: My third and final major point, the entire concept of school. If you look past the "learning", It's just a government facility that forces children to go there and follow the crowd of losers and never be different or creative. If you disagree with their ideas, you're deemed as a confused teenager and that you'll "get over the fad". Fuck this. Before school, I was a happy little boy who loved to draw and play with technology. After getting home from school today, I am an angry sack of shit ranting on a forum.

I feel better getting that off of my chest.

You're right, really. In the end, school is attempting to indoctrinate and conform you. I've even had teachers straight up say this and even complain about this themselves!

It's not a good way of learning. It's where your soul goes to die, and perhaps even worse than that.

Welcome aboard.

stevehein · 01-31-2015 08:05 AM

I'm glad you found SS. Thank you for writing here. I'm also glad you said that you think you can do anything you really want to. I agree with others here who say there are lots of paths through life which don't have to include college/university.

Are you learning a second language? I recommend traveling and getting out of the USA as soon as possible to seen some more of the world. I am from Indiana but have been to about60 countries. I promise you there are countries where you would feel more free. Now I live in Uruguay where they are a lot more relaxed about nearly everything.

I am also curious what your biological parents say to you. I feel sad to think that they have the legal power to free you, but I am guessing they don't take your feelings seriously. I suppose they invalidate you frequently. So yeah I'd like to hear the things they say to you.

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