School reports - how were yours?

Shardovan said:

Maths teachers and short tempers seem to go together in my mind

I would have to agree. For the final 3 years of secondary school, I had an absolute dragon of a Maths teacher, who caused me many a sleepless night. She had a daughter at the school in the same year as me... A lovely girl, but when I was in her company, I felt I had to refrain from letting off steam about her mum to my inner circle of friends.

Maths teachers and short tempers seem to go together in my mind. Or maybe those are the only ones I ever experienced or heard about and most are lovely. 

I had a PE teacher, who was also a semi-professional rugby player, who broke a lad's arm, a schoolkid, in a rugby game at school.

Maths and foreign languages are always taught in a way that only appeals to people who find them interesting in themselves. Maths seemed to me to be just a series of things, you learned how to do the 'thing' (simultaneous equations, integration etc.) then spent a few weeks doing problems - just the 'thing' over and over again with minor variations. It bored me rigid. It would have made more sense to me if the practical reason for the use of the 'thing' - navigation at sea, how one thing changes as another thing changes, with examples - was explained beforehand.

sn said:

It was too noisy, chaotic, changeable and the increased social and academic demands caused so much additional confusion, isolation and meltdowns at home.

Yes, our secondary schools were like that too.  Primary schools were definitely better with no switching between classes and more stability with just one teacher.  Not perfect at all, but easier to cope with.  

Ah, the Grimleys!  Funny but this bit is too real and actually not too over the top for a 70s PE teacher.   

Yes, that's exactly what i did with counselling, although I do wonder whether I'd have been so interested if it wasn't for all the trauma within my family.

And art...  oh art... I must return to that.   

Dyspraxia wouldn’t have been an excuse. I just had no coordination, still haven’t. The saying was that if you can’t teach, teach PE. Some PE teachers should have been put into asylums.

Haha, it just felt like the perfect opportunity for teachers to pick on people. Unless you were good at sport of course!

I know what you mean. I procrastinate a lot with my writing. I love writing dialogue though; I listen to people's conversations to get ideas and make it sound as real as possible. Sometimes it pays to just write sloppily and polish it up later. There's a quote somewhere about the art of good writing being re-writing! 

I'm doing a combined STEM degree with the OU. I'm going to focus on environmental science and psychology, part-time over six years. It's purely out of interest and to have some structure and routine. 

That degree and MA sounds interesting. Love a bit of history! 

That was funny but also quite tragically true to life. That whistle was an instrument of torture 

I hated every second of PE. The best any of my PE teachers could say about me on my reports was "tries hard". I did try but I don't think I ever managed to catch or hit the ball during my entire school years.

I was always last to be picked when the other kids were choosing teams. They'd rather be one person down than have me on their team. The only time I was ever briefly popular in PE lessons was one time on the hockey pitch, when I ran into the PE teacher and knocked her over 

watch this, it’s actually too similar to PE at my secondary school. I can honestly say that I hated every single moment of it. Spot the autistic boy in the clip!

https://youtu.be/l4FZ4Yz2nA8

It sounds like we all hated PE, I don't recall a single response here that claimed to like it. Unless someone did but is afraid to speak up! Haha.

I have studied creative writing informally, I wanted to write a novel but keep feeling I have nothing to say and the dialogue sometimes feels stilted. I would need to set it in the past but then feel the need to know everything about whatever period and never can know enough, even though I did a medieval studies degree and Viking/Anglo-Saxon MA!

What BSc are you starting?

AuTriker

Very true. I love creative writing and studied it but am also about to do a Bsc, so I guess I'm more complex than I first thought! 

Yeah, PE was dreadful - I absolutely hated rugby and football! 

I was mostly shy, quiet and well behaved, which helped me be 'invisible'. I was good at art subjects and maths but not so good at English and language. Did P.E to the "best of her ability" which was a considerate way of putting it . 

My mental health hit rock bottom in high school. It became harder to attend regularly or meet the demands. It was too noisy, chaotic, changeable and the increased social and academic demands caused so much additional confusion, isolation and meltdowns at home.

Primary school was a better experience in general, much less change day to day and I seemed to be able to cope better.

Jenny Butterfly

Exactly. I left school pretty confused. I completely understand the fear of criticism and humiliation as well. I seriously lack confidence and my abilities. I've worked in construction, been a chef; a personal trainer; a boxing trainer; a web designer, and now I'm working as a writer and editor. Also, I'm about to start another degree in a completely unrelated subject. More out of interest and to keep me focused. Guess I'm making up for my school days! 

But some of us are creative and academic and love both. I would have been sad to not get the break that art allowed. I know I would not have picked that over academic subjects even if it had been allowed I would have felt the subtle pressure, because that is what I did pick when the time came. Although not being forced to do PE would have been bliss!

I am heartily glad my school did still stream top middle and bottom group for some subjects though, I think they were starting to scrap that.

True.  We should have been encouraged towards becoming the people we were meant to be, not some cookie cutter version of what politicians and educators decided was needed.   
Mind you, I'd still have found it hard to make choices in keeping with the person I am.  So much of education is geared towards the external view - a teacher, an examiner, an interviewer, constantly assessed and given marks and grades accordingly.  Apparently I was a "born scientist" an "excellent mathematician" and a "gifted linguist", but really, between me and myself, I was terrified into becoming a perfectionist whose fears and anxieties revolved around the avoidance of all possible criticism or humiliation.  And I only wanted to be an artist but didn't know myself and didn't know how to stand my ground.  

I think Sam refers to it, maybe in a different way, but I felt that my own inclinations and interests needed to be put to one side and felt forced to please everyone else.  So, after years of this, when we were given options for choosing subjects at A level and university, I didn't choose what I wanted, I chose what I thought I was supposed to choose and what would help me on the jobs market.  Of course, I ended up in a market for which I was never suited in terms of my personal qualities and enthusiams and I was a fish out of water - and that isn't a recipe for success for anyone.   

Jenny Butterfly

Exactly! I wish they could have found a way of separating kids based on their skills. E.g., creatives, mathematicians, scientists etc. Then allowing them to flourish in their chosen interests. I'm sure some schools do it - just not an option for the masses! 

Ah, right.  Now Tesco I'm familiar with.  

Sunnydale is soon to be demolished too, I believe.  My sister and I were wondering whether it'd be worth them raffling off tickets to press the detonator!  We'd buy a fair few and then take a bottle of champagne along too!

@Helen   

Awesome, good luck with that! I recently wrote an infant school scene. It was when my teacher brought an ear trumpet to school as a joke. She claimed I was deaf and used to speak to me through it, much to the amusement of everyone else. Not sure I saw the funny side!