What kind of schoolkid were you?
So I was watching old episodes of Teachers and the whole feeling of the series sucked me back into secondary school. I remember teachers telling me off for homework not done or being late for class (and I always suspected they didn’t give a monkeys either but got off on the power thing).
Anyway it got me to thinking: am I the same person now that I was then? Obviously I have changed lots but in essence I am the same schoolgirl? I was a lot of things in school. I was shy, quiet, introspective, teacher’s pet, sometimes outspoken, slightly rebellious, the geek, the nerd, the brain, the dosser, the mitcher. But one thing I did like about my group of friends is that we weren’t easily boxed.
We were not the swots, certainly not the dumb-asses, not the sporty crowd, not the complete wasters or the skangers - I think we were ever so slightly rebellious but too smart to have it manifest in a way that got us in big trouble.
We didn’t give a sh*t but still anything other than a degree in college was not an option. I actually had history down as my first choice even though I wanted to be a writer. (Change of mind form brought me to compuer science. Blame it on Lucas Arts) After the junior certificate I was landed with an English teacher who really wanted to be an actress. ‘I’m on the stage’ she used to declare and I believed her because she wore stage makeup into school very day. Tide marks do not even begin to describe it.
She gave me C’s and D’s and slowly eroded any confidence I had in my writing even though I had some articles published in the local paper who subsequently asked me to write more. I never replied because I believed that teacher’s grades. Moral of the story: Do not believe people who cannot match makeup to their skin tone.
Anyway, way off topic. I wanted to ask any readers if they would share some moments from school, how it shaped or influenced their future and if they were the cheeky school boy, rebel grrrl or class geek. I used to swap games with my computer class teacher but also loved learning about Yeats and Keats. I don’t know if I am all that far from the Beatles-obsessed, poetry-writing, Michael Collins-loving, Monkey Island-playing girl I was at 16.
Thoughts?
I also had a weird English teacher who insisted on only giving me C’s in everything -no matter how much (or how little!) work I put in, and like you it eroded all confidence in my writing ability!
As for where I fit in, well, I didn’t really… I was a bit sporty, a bit of a rebel, a bit of a geek, bit musical, bit of a swot… who needs boxes
Teachers is a great series btw!
If we had have known each other in school, I definitely would have run with your crowd.
I was a rebel in school, no doubt, and I had very strong convictions about changing society (that was before your time, Marie). I also was NOT wise but stood up for what I believed in…and got into trouble.
As I grew up in Germany, I obviously went to a German school and German was my favourite subject. I’d always done well in my essays and my grammar and punctuation were impeccable…until I got this middle aged spinster as my German and history teacher. She resented everything about me and what I stood for and I got the worst marks for my essays, something like dropping from an A to a D. She totally eroded my self-confidence and at 17 I was prepared to leave school and look for a job. Thanks to my parents, they eventually managed to get me into another school in a nearly town. Within less than 6 months, I had gained a lot of confidence again. My new German teacher was very understanding and encouraged discussion as opposed to submission and my marks for German improved dramatically. When I did my final exams at 19 years of age, I got the best possible marks for my German paper. – That same teacher, who later became headmaster of the school, even offered me a place at his school, but my life took a different turn and I didn’t become a teacher.