Gosh. When you put it like this I'm starting to think that it's a GOOD thing that my childhood was spent in such a thick haze of daydreams that I was only aware of school at recess time.

But Gerard, children thrive on challenge. They
bloom with pressure. And then they get old.

After that ... they lay on the floor just because they can.

All, true, sadly enough. But: eating paste!

See? there are plenty of compensations for the drudgery of elementary school.

An excellent point. I still think we should ring a bell at about 10:00 and yell "Recess!" at work.

More motivation to homeschool mine.

I'm with the kid. I hated school except for Kindergarten (which was all play) and recess.

When I'd miss the school bus I'd have to walk or bike to school. One day I decided I would play hooky and just stay in the woods. But there was no one to play with. I get bored. Time dragged on. I finally went to school. It was only abou 11 am when I got there.

I always stared out the windows in class. Rarely enjoyed school.

Once I heard about some schools that would have a Field day once or twice a year. All day long outside playing games, sports. I wept in envy. My school had no such thing.

If they'd combine something like Boy Scouts with school, I'd have been a happy camper.

Schools are killing our boys' spirits now. Saying they're all ADD and drugging them into submission. It is a war against boys now.

No, I'm with that kid and his brief strike. They're killing him and doesn't want to give in.

It ends? wah wah wah wah
not if you can become a college prof such as ward chirchill

Should not have been drinking coffee when I started reading. Too good.

I spent much of my school day before age 8 figuring out new routes to get home (UK in the 60's).

Fortunately, my Mum saw me in the bath one day, couldn't help notice the bruises and minor knife wounds (!), and I had a change of school.

Just in time, I was becoming as brutal as the gang of rough, tough 10-year-olds bullying everyone else smaller than they were. You know what it's like when you're 8, and you see 6-year olds crying with hunger as their lunch money has been stolen every day for a month? I was strong and heavy for my age, they didn't pick on me. It got me mad, it was so Unjust.

So I started waiting in ambush for individual gang members on weekends so I could go 1-on-1 and beat the fertiliser out of them. It got so I was enjoying it. They started hunting me to push me under a bus, like they did to another kid who'd tried to hold out on them. I obtained a penknife by pulling it out of my leg during one narrow escape, and kept and used it whenever one of them produced a weapon. I was only 8, God help me.

Bullying is no joke, and school for some kids is a nightmare. Golding had it right when he wrote "Lord of the Flies".

In the next school, sure there was the odd fight, but it was just boyhood dominance games, no-one got hurt. Always 1-on-1, a "fair fight", and your opponent would sometimes help you up if you got knocked down. It was like heaven.

I loved this post (especially the "no coffee" part)!

As the mother of a 4th, 1st, and kindergartener, I could totally relate. Have to admit, on occasion I grant them a "mental health day" and let them cut class simply because they are "overwhelmed." Sometimes, I am, too. Hubby hates it when I do that, but what the hell, you only live once. Sometimes you gotta hide at home and reach the next level on the GameCube or hit the playground when it's 60 degrees in February. There's NEVER going to be a time when the system isn't sucking the life out of you. When you're lying on your back saying "no more" is the time when Mom needs to rally and preserve your sanity. Good lesson in a balanced life, I say. Writing, coloring, and making homemade bread -- much better than Ritilan.

Yes, I agree completely. I took my kids out when it was still illegal and did a half-assed job of homeschooling them because of the dreary hell that was school. They are all fine and some of them are big acheivers with big degrees. I only wish someone had had pity on me.

Absolutely 100% correct. I remember, albeit vaguely, times in public school when I felt I was drowning in a slough of despond. I do, however, seem to recall getting over it in a couple of days or weeks.

For those who don't get over it, perhaps we could go back to the good old days when kids worked 12-14 hours a day from the time they were five or six. Too much hassle bringing those days back? There are plenty of places in the world where the good old days are still here.

cw

Time was, they called it the "twelve-year sentence." Today it's more like fourteen, and the inmates are more dangerous than anywhere else outside a federal prison.

Thing is, most parents seem to need the break from their younglings. Well, perhaps "need" is the wrong word. They certainly want it, though -- sufficiently to drown the government-run schools in bucks. (Average cost per student per year on Long Island, "public" schools only: just under $18,000.) And you should hear the screams when an "austerity" budget causes the suspension of bus service.

If we go by the evidence, our love for our children is, shall we say, a smidgen less than the rosy pictures painted for us by our artists. Wait, perhaps that's overstated too. Perhaps we just like to keep them at a distance, in the hope that their absence will make our hearts fonder.

Nice essay, Gerard.

Editor red ink thyself:

There he lay (or lies)...

I think the kid might have a point. Mark Butterworth and Alan E Brain both got it right, as different as their posts were.

My experiences were nowhere near as serious as Alan's, though, but were bad enough.

As for Mark, my school did have a Field Day. Today, all these years later, I (fortunately) no longer remember exactly what happened; only that it was pure hell.

Mark is also right about the current War on Boys. I can't even imaging having to go to school nowadays. I spent lots of free time drawing pictures of soldiers, airplanes, guns and bombs. Today I'd be getting mandatory psychological counseling, if not a police record. So I'm kind of in a quandary here. While I had a lot of trouble with bullying when I was in school, the current efforts to breed (or drug) the masculinity out of boys is going to have dire consequences for our society in the future. Not least in our efforts to defend ourselves against Islamofascism.

I think homeschooling is a great idea. Thanks to the resources available on the Internet, it's more doable now than at any time in the past.

Still, it's probably just as well that I don't have kids. I don't think I'd make a good parent.

I still remember how shocked and betrayed I felt, when I learned that all my hard work and good grades from grade 1-8 didn't count, and only grades in 9-12 "counted" toward college.

This was when I was beginning to feel like the kid you described -- by junior high, kids had gotten so mean and vicious, and then there were the cliques. I felt like I was going to a factory job every day -- the school was way overcrowded, the teachers exhausted and unable to establish any personal rapport with the good students. I couldn't wait to get out of school and get a job, where I was sure things must be more humane than in the "education" factory!

My level of interest in high school went way down, and my grades reflected it. If only college had started after 7th grade -- I'd have qualified for a full scholarship to Harvard!

My wife had a similar horror story. We homeschool all our kids.

aA bB cC dD eE fF gG hH iI jJ kK lL mM nN oO pP qQ rR sS tT uU vV wW xX yY and zZ next time won't you sing with me to help me learn my abc's.
:)

Im afraid of Kowalas... THEY BITE!!!

I actually tried this line of reasoning on my dad when I was in sixth grade, and again in seventh.

I didn't work either time, but to this day I remain convinced that I had some valid points.

Our educational system fails because our educators know nothing about children. Nor do they want to know anything about children. The goal of modern education is not to teach children, the goal of modern education is to control them.

As the inventor of the communications satellite would but it, "Any sufficiently advanced system of education is indistinguishable from play."

Loved the essay! I went to Catholic schools and most of what you wrote was spot on for me, except for the heavy dose of guilt you got everyday too as part of the curriculum.

One benefit our generation did have, Gerard-- no PC brainwashing as part of the curriculum. No let's-pretend-we're-Muslims for a week or similar nonsense.

You know what it's like when you're 8, and you see 6-year olds crying with hunger as their lunch money has been stolen every day for a month? I was strong and heavy for my age, they didn't pick on me. It got me mad, it was so Unjust.

I don't understand the sequence of timestamps on these comments. First one is Feb. 3, 2005 on an August 25, 2007 post?

Guess - It's a reprint. I totally enjoyed it the first time I read it, too.

Turns out that there was a good reason why I vibed different at school.

I'd been diagnosed as mildly Intersexed back in 1985, but 3 months after my post in Feb 05, we found out that the "mildly" bit was wildly inaccurate.

Interesting that I'm on record as having a "typical transsexual's childhood" even before the symptoms became apparent. Even though whether I'm a TS woman with an appalling strange mutant endocrine system, or an IS woman so badly affected she looked male most of her life, is an open question at this point.

That's so funny. My wife (a teacher of twenty years) was complaining the other day that she's been on the school calendar for her entire life, and wants desperately to get off it. It is a wicked little cycle.

That's so funny. My wife (a teacher of twenty years) was complaining the other day that she's been on the school calendar for her entire life, and wants desperately to get off it. It is a wicked little cycle.

Well said, Gerard. A whole new perspective on Life and why I don't seem to have any fun at anything...ever. I intend to fix that now. And you've shown me the way. Thanks.

Subsunk

Ahh, you've forgotten all the benefits of this day at the office:

* You learn how to put a condom on a cucumber

* You get to watch dirty pictures that your mother would spank you for, in that "health" class

* You begin to understand what a worthless white worm you are, how you killed all the Indians and enslaved the blacks, and how your country and culture are inferior to all others, especially the most primitive ones.

* When you get the wrong answers in math class, you are told how special you are, and how hard you worked to get them, and how well you followed the "process." Great for your self-esteem.

* You get to actually save the planet by planting a little seed in a tiny pot of dirt. Such power, such unabashed goodness!

* You can pee in your pants and no one will be allowed to laugh at you.

I'm still looking for a job this good...

I snorted OUT LOUD in my little office L when I read the list of tasks in school, and when I got to: stand up and say to your neighbor, "Hola, como se llama..." I laughed loud enough to get my fellow connecting L mates to stand up take notice.

On the second day of my 1st Grade career, I tried to stay home and read. But noooo. I hated school every day of my life, and I was a good student. The first time I heard the words "home school" was in 1983 and I was sold on the spot. Husband and I decided to home school our son, and now 30 years down the road, I swear to you it was the best decision we ever made.

The years between 2 and 12 offer the best opportunity for a child to learn. They are eager and willing and enjoy learning. What we do instead is send them to institutions designed to house them and force them to obey rules designed to make life easier for the guards of the institution. Children do learn in spite of this but much of that learning takes place outside the institution.

Hijacking the education system is the worst thing this rotten assed gov't has ever done for that is the basis for all other societal ills.

Forcing kids to attend public schools should be considered child abuse combined with life long mental handicapping.

A child uninspired must struggle with this issue. Yes.

(If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

The same goes for the adult who, as a 'forlorn shipwrecked brother', has lost heart and must experience daily, the curse of Groundhogs Day.

The difference between the child and the adult is that the childs' parent is manifested in a visible manifestation and the tool of force that is used is 'fear'; whereas with the 'adult' (ie the child post rebellious teen period - the necessary breaking of the authoritative ties from the parent)the only tool that that has ANY last power (after a while, even 'fear' cannot bridle the will from within) is the power of Logic.

In the end, after all is said and done, the purpose of life is to PLAY and is reserved for the most sacred of all days to the week - (Sunday): Kids knew this from Day One and those who have lived inspired lives forget that all things under the sun are but a mere vanity compared to the eternity of the One.

Perhaps Groundhogs Day of burnout is a reminder of this fact such that ANY task (especially if it is mundane) becomes a burden of monumental weight. A weight as heavy as eternity.

Once that fact is established (the proper order of things with Play given its proper place and significance), your common sense can kick in and re-order the understanding of doing even the most mundane of tasks (Do what you said you are going to do - ~Bill Whittle) and that Work is required to maintain the blessings that you enjoy during your playtime.

What is Play?

It is anything you FEEL like doing (Creativity requires your full participation, btw...). To 'Enjoy the gift of pure being'. As you know, the vast majority of things you feel like doing does not generate income or put food on the table.

God is Love.
Godly love limits choice;
Godly choices expand happiness.
We want to be happy;
God wants us to be happy.
Love God, and then
do what you will.

~via "finishStrongdoc"

Henry Adams went on strike in Quincy when he was six years old. He refused the exertions of his mother to go through the front door. His father was in Washington, but his grandfather was upstairs in his room. He came down five minutes later fully dressed and took Henry's hand without a word to walk him the two miles to school and into the classroom, turned around, and left.

Henry later likened the process of school to a colt being broken. But that was then. Now they really break them.

Its nice to revisit this essay nearly one year later.

Age to Age, the problems are still the same, aren't they?

(except as we age, we try to attach the vanities of 'importance' or 'maturity' to our actions)

No, they are getting worse all the time.

In the 80's I designed 100 million dollar public school tributes to the state.

Now, they are sprawling half a billion dollar windowless pre-prisons.

"No, they are getting worse all the time."

The Society is coarsening and yes, things are getting worse.

It was the The nature of man and his inner struggles to which I was referring, Ghost.

I cut my kids loose. We did homeschool when it was illegal. They are all functioning adults now.
We didn't even work very hard at it.
I believed in freedom.