How did you do in school?

Apart from my polarized grades and skills, and the occasional chair throwing, I too was the quiet kid in class. Always well behaved, just trying to get to the end of day.

But, I was one of those kids who would get in trouble when other people are causing the trouble. Like telling someone to stop throwing crap at me in class, or taking my stuff. I'd be the one sent out for disrupting the class.

I hated school. Found it very overwhelming and the social aspect very difficult.

But I did very well in every subject and frustrated at how slowly everyone else picked things up. To me it always seemed like they were teaching us things very slowly and not going into enough detail.

Teachers liked me because I was very quiet and never noisy. Although I did get into trouble a few times for "answering back" which was just me answering a question honestly. I never did understand what I did wrong, but apparently people sometimes ask questions that are meant to shame you, and you are not supposed to answer them. For example, a teacher asked me why I was sniffing in class and I told her it was to stop the snot from coming out of my nose. She sent me to the headteacher?! I don't know what she expected.

I have loads of stories like that. But my report cards were always good and any social issues or difficulties I had were completely overlooked because to my teachers I was someone who excelled in every subject (except woodwork) and wasn't noisy so they had nothing to complain about.

Primary school wasn't too bad, although I did get very anxious at times (to the point of making myself ill) and I felt very uncertain about how to behave at play times.  However, the bullying and exclusion started to creep in during the last year and I can remember hiding in the toilets to cry.  

Secondary school was much worse and, having been brought up to be polite and well spoken, I was, in effect, left without any real defence against bullies whose vocab included swearing for every other word and who seemed determined to big themselves up at my expense.  It was also a very rough comprehensive and I found it quite overwhelming having to change rooms between classes and not have the continuity of the same teacher all the time, as with primary school.  Early sexualisation was also an issue at that school, with virginity openly sneered at.  

I did very well academically though, so my problems were overlooked and my reports indicated "great expectations".  Even this worked against me in the long run though, because I actually believed that I'd also do well at work. 

What really happened was that I couldn't cope with the level of interaction required because, by that point, I was crippled with anxiety and this meant that I angsted over every little thing.  I could do well in accountancy exams (for which others who couldn't were given cramming courses and additional support, as the difficulties were openly acknowledged and understood).  But I couldn't do so well doing presentations, attending meetings or driving to wherever I was supposed to be (for which there was NO help or support because the feeling was that everyone could just do these things with a bit of practice).  So, as usual, I was out of kilter with others and this seemed to attract a more subtilised form of bullying.

So, yeah, a big round of thanks to my rough comprehensive school for preparing me for the "real world" of getting edged out due to being different.  

Intellectually, I found there was a massive difference between early years, when I was taught in ways that weren't suitable for me, and I got into trouble a lot, and from A-levels onward, when students have to do independent research, at which point, I was miles ahead of the others.

Socially, it was unpleasant throughout.

Yeah, I really wanted to do it. Later on I looked at stonemasonry courses at the local tech. But they were only accessible to mature students and people already working in stone masonry, WTF

I then pursued various forms of engineering for a bit, but for that, I wasn't really smart enough or I did actually get bored hahaha.

I felt out of my depth and bored, so I walked out and went skateboarding instead, bumming about, being a delinquent etc.

Shortly after, someone steered me toward art after seeing some sketches I'd done. I applied for art A level but didn't have any work to show beyond a few pencil drawings, they gave me a summer project as an entry test. Based on that, I got in.

It was a college arts diploma including 3 A levels. I got top grades and a distinction, apart from art history. There's definitely something about history.. haha.

The rest is history, as they say. Lots of ups and downs, successes and failures. But at least I'd found my 'thing'.

i snapped and threatened one particular co worker.  Didnt bother me again....

When I was at junior school, walking home one day a much taller bigger older kid kept harassing me. I was a short ar5e and people thought me unthreatening.

After warning him to back off, unsuccessfully, I swung around and punched him in the chest. He dropped like a sack of spuds and span in circles on the floor. Everyone was surprised, including me. It must have been a lucky winding shot.

But we all learnt, don't mess with the little kid.

It gave me a lot of confidence to stand up for myself. It also taught me that people are wary of unpredictable behaviours. People don't expect tables, chairs, bicycles etc to be thrown at them, until they're actually thrown at them.

Not the best way to behave, and definitely not in adulthood. But it certainly worked for a while. 

Yeah it kind of felt like being trained to be a teacher and taking home marking with you or something never made any sense but I guess they wanted to see how you coped indepently with work rather than being in a class room with help

That sounds pretty cool tbf 

I was constantly on edge until I discovered exercise in my mid 20's and managed to get an interesting job, then things calmed down a bit.

Yeah, I never really understood homework...

I only ever put any effort into stuff I found easy or particularly interesting, which to be fair, wasn't much.

Most of the time I was trying not to fall asleep in class, either from boredom or the fact that I'd go to bed really late.

For me that's why I use to bunk off especially PE and Humanities cause let's face it those were the last two lessons of the day for us and the most pointless for myself I use to bunk off when stuff got to stressful just so I could be myself or get the buss home early at the end of the day. They even stoped bothering giving me dention for in the end majority of teachers saw me as a burden to teach anyway so the vast majority just didn't bother. 

Paul said:

the old YTS scheme

Ah yes, that old thing.

I had an interview a well known quarrying / stone masonry company but I was told that my grades were too good, I was too intelligent, and I would get bored. Better look elsewhere.

I really wanted to work with stone, building, sculpting etc. But apparently I was too smart haha.

meh.

i got bad marks in all my gcse's.
like 50% of the grade is graded by coursework/homework and i didnt do any of that as i considered it to be a intrusion on our free time and a thing that shouldnt be allowed. in my opinion work should be done at school and stay at school and not come into our private home lives and make our personal space stressful, so i never did it. so i got bad grades because of that.

I got high marks in maths, chemistry, and physics. I got middling to poor marks in languages, english, history etc

I generally didn't enjoy school, found it to be an alien world.

Thoroughly uninteresting.

I never understood why I had to be there in the first place.

I was either veiwed as being the bullie or I was bullied myself difference is I never grassed anyone but NTs would try and sabatage me to make me look like I was the bad guy when actually I wasn't so in the end I was just like *** it and didn't give a *** how people saw as they never tried to understand me anyway. Although I wouldn't clasify myself as a bullie I was just miss understood at the time at the time caus back then I hadn't been assessed with ASD  so had to mask my autism.. I always new I was different so did my best to hide that. I also hated having learning support as it just painted a target on back and I was just classified as being stupid or having learning difculties over a disability so school wasn't easy to say the least I don't think it is for many Autistiscs assesed or not. But it's definitely harder if you don't get assesed when your younger. still *** school all it was a was a popularity trible contenst in my opinion partly why I didn't Wana go as I knew it would of been the same too.

Yep, life was sweet back then! 

Same here so much pressure at secondary school. Found it exhausting in so many ways.

my dad tried to force me to go college right after high school, even drove me up to it and tried to force me but i refused. later on i went to college and it was actually ok, i guess in college people are there who want to be there, well at that time as college wasnt forced by the government so only people that wanted to go actually went so then thered have only been decent kids aiming for something going there instead of rowdy kids forced to go there that didnt want to be there. so college was ok for me, there was a autistic guy there who i got along with naturally, but then i was even surprised that some chavvy teen wanted to tag along with us too which was odd as he was alright and made me consider that some that appear bad are only that way to camoflage and fit in with the other bad ones.

At primary I was awkward and alone couldn't make a single friend and at secondary I was awkward and alone but life threw anxiety and depression in to the mix as well lol ... not my best memories

i never got on, in primary school i was always alone and tried to slot myself in but never was accepted, my work i did good at though and was a decent student. then in high school it got very bad, i managed to somehow slot myself in with a group by chance somehow, latched onto one person who then he somehow got others together and we all hung out, but that wasnt to last as i attracted alot of bullies and got bullied alot which caused the group to fracture 1 by 1 with eventually the main guy i latched onto that formed it leaving stating that he cant be freinds with me anymore as i attract too many bullies. was pretty sad. my work in high school also got bad, at first i was placed in high sets as my primary school work and test scores were good, but then all the other students dragged me down to lower sets as they cause trouble and chaos and i got done and so i got punished and sent down to bottom sets, where then more bad students were and then classes never got taught as the bad students were just rioting all the time and even teachers ran out crying unable to control the classes, eventually i just skipped school in my last years entirely, i didnt see the point of it, considered it a waste of time and was abused every day anyway.