Via Bishop Hill, this article explains just why children don’t like school.
Ask any schoolchild why they don’t like school and they’ll tell you. “School is prison.” They may not use those words, because they’re too polite, or maybe they’ve already been brainwashed to believe that school is for their own good and therefore it can’t be prison. But decipher their words and the translation generally is, “School is prison.”
Let me say that a few more times: School is prison. School is prison. School is prison. School is prison. School is prison.
Yup. I’d go along with that. The cliché that our school-days are the best of our lives is pure fantasy. They are not. I detested school from the first day I set foot inside until the day I was free. Indeed, the best memory I have of school is July 1st 1976 – the day I walked out never to go back, with nary a backward glance.
This doesn’t mean that my childhood was unhappy – far from it. But the memories of childhood that endure are those when I was free of school, scout camping trips, cycle rides, practising archery with my father, judo contests, none of which involved school.
My memories of school, in contrast are almost all bad. The bullying – and not just from fellow pupils – the enforced sport twice a week and learning by rote. Anyone who thinks that forcing people to endure sport is in some way good for them is deluded. Forcing me out onto a playing field twice a week for over a decade instilled in me a deep undying hatred for football, rugby, cricket and athletics. It is for this reason that Andy Burnham can stuff his golden decade of sport up his sphincter and keep shoving until it scrapes his tonsils.
That said, forcing me out onto the playing field did have one unintended consequence – it taught me the value of rebellion, something that lives with me to this day. Then there was the learning by rote. There was this strange idea that we all learn the same. We do not. Learning by rote may instill certain knowledge, but some of us need to understand “why” and “how” before we can embed the fact into our long term memory. I recall trembling with fear as I had to stand in front of the class and recite my times tables. We could not progress onto the next one until we had achieved this ordeal. Failure meant a red mark against our house and the humiliation that went with it. I got no further than two and was discarded as stupid and un-teachable. I failed my eleven plus in maths. Decades later a colleague, an erstwhile teacher, commented when we were discussing this, that of course I couldn’t learn that way, I simply wasn’t that type of learner.
So, yes, school is prison and I would not inflict it on my worst enemy if there was an alternative. I do not have children, but if I did, home-schooling would be my preferred method of education, frankly.
scout camping trips
You mean sodomy conventions?
.-= My last blog ..[sherlock again] who was the killer =-.
Er, no.
“Anyone who thinks that forcing people to endure sport is in some way good for them is deluded. “
You can replace ‘sport’ with ‘anything’… 😉
.-= My last blog ..Monstrous Arrogance… =-.
I’m totally with you, man.
The best thing about school without doubt was… summer holidays, the longest period you had away from that miserable place.
I would definitely try to home-school if I had kids.
My one disagreement is that I think learning things by heart can be good. It is easier, for my mind anyway, to learn things like songs and rhymes than other kinds of information. It does depend how it’s done.
.-= My last blog ..Corporate shame =-.
Julia, indeed you can.
Trooper, it all depends on the learner. What works for one does not work for another. I simply cannot remember information by rote – I have to have an understanding first. Therein lies a big problem with schools – we are all individuals with individual learning styles. A school by its very nature cannot cater for those individual needs.
Great post – even if I don’t entirely agree!
True, my school days were not the best days of my life.
True, the best thing about those days was the holidays. We got three months in the summer, and I’m still shocked that youngsters in Scotland today only get 6 weeks.
But there are kids who like school. Really. And even I have to admit that there were teachers that inspired me and challenged me. And I made friends through school. And while there were years in which a day off school was a great treat, I remember one year at school when I couldn’t bear to miss school.
But basically, I agree with you. For a lot of kids, school is prison, and it gets worse with every passing year. I think the way that the government has insisted on raising the school leaving age instead of lowering it is absolutely disgraceful.
But I think the most interesting thing in this post is the revelation that you left school in 1976. Why is it that almost all the best bloggers are people who finished school in the 70s?
.-= My last blog ..Entitled to nothing? =-.
Haha so true. I come from the other side of the fence in the sense that I loved all sports and enjoyed playing them as much as I could. Having said that, what’s the point in forcing it on those people who clearly hate it?
And I agree, school was prison, the bullying was awful for myself as well. I left without looking back too, and I don’t regret it. School doesn’t encourage individualism, it encourages conformity, because if you step out of line by being different (and it doesn’t matter in what way) the bullies will be waiting. Can’t think of a better way of showing how nasty human nature really is. My 2 year old nephew will be learning karate at the age of 5 if I have any say in it.
Because, perhaps, we are of a generation that had parents who could remember what the second world war was all about – having either fought themselves or had parents who did. We are also of a generation who were around during the cold war and understood all too well the meaning of totalitarianism up close and personal.
“We are also of a generation who were around during the cold war and understood all too well the meaning of totalitarianism up close and personal.”
Interesting point. I have often had to remind myself that no one under the age of 25, or even 30, has any recollection of the days of the cold war. That must make a huge difference to their outlook.
.-= My last blog ..Entitled to nothing? =-.
“Why is it that almost all the best bloggers are people who finished school in the 70s?”
*cough**splutter*
Leaving that remark to one side, I think home schooling comes with some serious downsides in terms of social interaction and communication skills for children. While state education is indeed shambolic, I know that when the day comes I’ll be sending my kids there.
.-= My last blog ..Alan Duncan finally gets what he deserves =-.
LFAT – a valid criticism. One my mother in law expressed when teaching some home schooled children to play various musical instruments. It is, however, one that can be readily addressed with home schoolers grouping together and engaging in group activities. I would never wish to put a child through the misery I endured.
LFAT – You’ll be glad that I decided, at the last minute, to insert the “almost”.
😉
.-= My last blog ..Weedkillers and the nanny tendency =-.
“I think home schooling comes with some serious downsides in terms of social interaction and communication skills for children.”
I know Longrider has addressed this point, but I’ll add that the only reason little children barely able to grasp a pencil need social skills is because they are being forcibly socialised at a very young age. I don’t know many people who were home-schooled but I do know a number of people who were schooled in foreign countries where school begins at a more sensible age and they do not seem to be less socially-aware.
School is not the only place a child can learn how to interact with other people, and because children are segregated by age, they actually get a very skewed version of society. Outside the laboratory, they are able to see people of all ages and learn far more about their fellow creatures.
As a final point I would say that, if I could have my time again, I wouldn’t waste one second in a classroom, but would spend it with my grandfather, who died when I was at primary school, a man who’d fought in the war, an engineer and a gentleman. He could have taught me far more than any of my teachers.
.-= My last blog ..Why do judges love paedophiles? =-.
LFAT: “I think home schooling comes with some serious downsides in terms of social interaction and communication skills for children.”
Err, No. What children need in terms of socialisation is learning to deal with the adult world, not being penned up with their peer group and infantilising teachers.