Public School Horror Stories

This thread is for stories from people who wish to regale us with tales from their experience with public education, be it full stories or bits of collectivist dogma that they remembered forced into their young, impressionable minds.

I remember that whenever someone would bring in any kind of food item, and eat it during class, the teacher would always demand "Get rid of it, unless you have enough to go around!"

The lesson to be learned here kids, is that values should not be enjoyed unless everyone can enjoy them, all at the same time, and equally.

Post 1

Thursday, December 11, 2003 - 6:33am

I remember the method used in the Sayville Public Schools to discourage fighting: everybody involved got the same punishment, no matter who threw the first punch. At least, that was the official line.

What actually happened is that people like me, who got bullied on a regular basis, figured out that we were going to get the shaft whether we refrained from initiating force or not. As a result, I stopped waiting for the bullies to hit me first, and fought them with their own methods. I think a few of them still have scars by which to remember me.

Post 2

Friday, December 12, 2003 - 12:15pm

Ah, where to begin! So MANY events come to mind:

1. First grade: I liked to read. I didn't have the slightest desire to "socialize" with my classmates, since I was reading -- and doing reports on -- books like George Orwell's 1984, and Charles Dickens, while the other kids were still learning to add 2+2.
Anyway, that absurd bitch of a "teacher" they had always forced me to "interact" with my "peers" whether I wanted to, or not. (Mind you, these were the same kids to kicked my ass routinely).
also, she would yell "EAT! EAT" at me, in the shrill voice of hers. (As a result of this sort of thing, I used to NOT "eat" very much at all, until I got married two years ago. Hell, I'm 5'9", and weighed 99 lbs.)

2. The school did an IQ test on me in first grade: I scored 12th-Grade (entry college) level on reading/comprehension/history etc, and GRADE LEVEL ("age-appropriate") on the math section. In other words, because there was actually something I was "normal" in, they stuck me in the "remedial section".
But here's the kicker: I was in the "gifted" section for a third of the day, the "resource room" for ANOTHER third of the day, and with my so-called "peers" the rest of the time.
Result: THREE seperate groups of kids to get my ass kicked by.

3. I was finally able to actually LEARN MATH after I QUIT and got my GED. (The wonderful, benevolent "public school" didn't want to "over-tax" me by actually teaching me math.)
It took me 3 months LEARNING ON MY ONW, to be able to get enough algebra to pass the COLLEGE entrance exams with a halfway-decent grade.
(So much for the benevolent hand of the STATE!)

4. I am fairly nearsighted. As a result of this, my school made the usual (half-assed) attempts at "helping me", which always just got in my way. If I wanted something, I just WENT for it. People could never figure out if I was a "braniac" or a "retard", or just a "four-eyes."
basically, I learned the inner workings of the HERD MENTALITY from the time I was 6 years old.
"Public schools" are a joke: they should all be burnt to the ground. They don't give a damn about "educating". It's all about cliques and "popularity". It's all "image", and it makes me want to vomit.

Oh yeah, there was also all of that "share with the class" bullshit, AND the fact that I got detention for actually fighting back when somebody tried to kick my ass.

It's pretty damned bad when I could get straight-A's by cutting more classes one marking period, just so I didn't get my ass kicked, and could STUDY.

Hmm, "social studies" was a hoot, too: we got to learn about certain, highly-censored portrayals of "Noble savages" -- tribal populations from new guinea and suchlike. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against New guineans, or even about primitive folks in general, but I don't see how they should be held up as exemplary of what we all should strive for.

Post 3

Friday, December 12, 2003 - 12:54pm

"Public schools" are a joke: they should all be burnt to the ground. They don't give a damn about "educating". It's all about cliques and "popularity". It's all "image", and it makes me want to vomit.

Burnt to the ground? I'd rather napalm and dynamite every public school ever built, plow the rubble under the ground, and seed the ground with salt. To send a child to a government school knowing that they teach conformity and not reason is, IMHO, an unforgivable act of child abuse.

Post 4

Friday, December 12, 2003 - 2:06pm

I guess I remained relatively untouched by the grotesqueries of public school. I don't know if this was by accident or because of my "thousand-yard stare", but I know for a fact it's rare. I was left alone by teachers, bullies, idiots and conformists (sometimes one in the same.) The best policy--though I wasn't conscious of it at the time--seemed to have been remaining aloof from the daily tragedies that public schools breed like hamsters. I actually enjoyed most of high school--I had good friends, and the eye candy just never ceased to amaze me!

I do recall one incident that to this day scars my id like rusty nail in the eye: I was in roughly the third grade, eating in the school cafeteria, enjoying a frugle helping of chicken nuggets. As I took one apart, to my horror, a dead fly fell from the delectable tasty!

Since, I've never been able to eat chicken nuggets, barring near-starvation and a gun to the head! Ack!

J

Post 5

Friday, December 12, 2003 - 7:06pm

You actually --- LIKED that disturbing --- SUBSTANCE they claimed was "food"?????
Oh -- MY --- GODDDDDD! (aaaaagh!)

The only thing I would have even called edible at my whole school, was tater tots. No way to mess up tater tots. Plus, they served them every meal for the entire time I was there!

Y'know something? Think about it. Public schools are the training-grounds for the mass conformist herd. Anybody who is smarter (or even just "a loner") or who doesn't "fit in" to one of the cookie-cutter cliques, is ostracized and driven to the bottom. Nerds (AKA people who actually are there to learn), geeks (AKA people who are not 'trendy'), and anybody else like that, get stomped.
And then we wonder why our socitieties are the way they are? Everywhere, the notion of "excellence" -- and the "Individual" -- are being undermined. We're becoming a planetary culture that resembles a giant high-school.
And they say schools can't teach: they're teaching TOO WELL. teaching bullshit, and destroying civilization.

Post 6

Saturday, December 13, 2003 - 7:48am

So much for "Revenge of the Nerds", eh, Henry?

I couldn't stand eating the slops the Sayville Public Schools called "school lunches". The hamburgers glowed in the dark, and I could have sworn that the cheese would glow in the dark. Actually, I didn't eat lunch the whole time I was in high school; I hid in the library every lunch break.

Post 7

Saturday, December 13, 2003 - 11:15am

Did your high-school serve "Pizza?" I tell you guys, I didn't even UNDERSTAND what real actual pizza was, until tenth grade, when I started going to the pizza shop in town.
The crust wasn't made out of cardboard, the tomato paste actually tasted like tomatoes (!!!), and the cheese wasn't green and rubbery. I swear they were feeding us packing-materials. Why is it that any Government-run opperation is going to have sucky food?

As far as "revenge of the nerds". it's happening: it's called "school shootings."

Post 8

Saturday, December 13, 2003 - 2:41pm

"Why is it that any Government-run operation is going to have sucky food?"

Oh, the horror stories I could tell about Army food! Poor menus are to be expected, but dear god, they made us eat crap so much that we began to like it!

Down with government cheese!

J

Post 9

Sunday, December 14, 2003 - 5:40pm

***grin!!!***

Monday, December 15, 2003 - 5:37am

As far as "revenge of the nerds". it's happening: it's called "school shootings."

Henry, I'd say that it isn't happening often enough if the shooters were only targetting those who bullied them instead of whoever happens to be in their sights.

Post 11

Monday, December 15, 2003 - 5:43am

Oh, the horror stories I could tell about Army food! Poor menus are to be expected, but dear god, they made us eat crap so much that we began to like it!

Jeremy, my grandfather used to tell me about Army chow too. He'd say, "Matty, if you've got to serve in the military, join the Navy. Army chow'll kill you if the enemy doesn't!"

Post 12

Monday, December 15, 2003 - 7:25am

Ha! It hasn't changed much since your granddad's time!

Post 13

Monday, December 15, 2003 - 9:39am

Let me say at the outset that I am opposed to government run schools as a matter of principle because it takes choices away from people. That having been said, please let me relate some of my experiences.

I�m retired and volunteer tutoring 5th and 6th grade math two hours a day at the local elementary school. This is not an altruistic gesture, as I am sacrificing nothing. I have limited financial resources and there are very few charities I agree with so I choose this method to exercise my generous nature. (ahem).

I live in El Dorado, a bedroom community for Santa Fe. Santa Fe itself surely one of the (say) three greatest hot-beds of liberal, touchy-feely cities in the US. It is way out of touch with the rest of NM which sometimes elects a Republican governor � Gary Johnson was the previous one and he was closer to Libertarian than Republican on many issues, including legalization of marijuana. The public school performance is one of the lowest in the 50 states � I think that MS is lower.

However, in El Dorado there is a somewhat different attitude on the part of students toward learning and El Dorado is one of the best in the county. Without exception the students are respectful and eager to learn. I have seen nothing resembling bullying. There are no discipline problems in the classroom. In short, they are a joy to work with. One might argue that such harmony might suggest mediocrity but I don�t detect that in this case and I don�t see any suppression of individuality.

On the other hand, there appears to have been a great reluctance to require any sort of rote learning, particularly in times tables memorization. In my opinion they are about two years behind in that essential skill and it holds them back when they are expected to master long division. The teachers I have spoken with understand the problem and want to overcome it. There has been a great change in the past few years on evaluating performance of the pupils and teachers, to the benefit of all. The text book is fairly well written.

Unfortunately, I expect that when the students get into middle school and have to be bused to Santa Fe, they will have many of the problems that this board has described � bullying, low expectations, truancy, etc. that are prevalent there.

Just my two cents worth.

Here's an interesting site:
http://www.mathematicallycorrect.com/#glossary

Paul

Post 14

Monday, December 15, 2003 - 8:25pm

Good deal, Paul! Thanks for the good comments! Hey, does anybody here know about a guy called Jonathan Taylor Gatto? He's a school-teacher who utterly detests the government schools, and advocates stuff that any freedom-minded person would love. (True, he blames "industrialists" for the form of the public schools, and tends to read too much into the "multinational corporation" conspiracy theory, but he DOES have some good points.)

Graybosch: damn right!
compulsory schooling + stupid slacker bullies = schoolyard murders. When the schools are mostly about popularity and other bullshit like that, and thugs are kept in who don't give a damn about learning....then you're GOING to have people murdered. It's pretty much inevitabl.

Post 15

Tuesday, December 16, 2003 - 11:56am

Henry, I've read Gatto's online materials, and while he comes across as a bit paranoid, he does make a case for some industrialists working hand-in-glove with the government to help raise a generation of obedient worker-bees. Let's face it, there were more Orren Boyles in American industry than there were Hank Reardens. Have a look at The Six Lesson Schoolteacher.

As for schoolyard murders -- let's just say that if there had been guns in my reach and I wasn't committed to getting the hell out of Sayville, then people wouldn't be talking about Columbine, but about West Sayville. I could have been no different from Harris and Klebold; I just would have been more selective in my targetting.

Post 16

Saturday, January 3, 2004 - 12:22am