Children Hate School

[Thekla]

For my entire life, it was a commonly accepted fact that most children hate school. It was always depicted in cartoons, music, movies. They hate it with a passion. They will put more work into avoiding it than just doing it. So why is it that we as a society are confused when children commit suicide? It makes no sense!

Schools these days are much more about "equality", which has honestly been a disaster.
Now you have the dumb kids (me), mixed with the average kids, mixed with the smart kids, all in one classroom. All children with different fundamental needs and dreams. The smart kids are burdened by us dumb kids and us dumb kids are stressed over the work we fundamentally can't do. It's cruel.

Telling a class of children they have to be in the top 10 of a class when it's statistically impossible for all of them to is just fundamentally disgusting.

It's such a fucking tragedy that children feel so incredibly stressed that they're willing to end their lives. And the worst part? NOBODY CARES! What the fuck is wrong with us?

 

[EvisceratedJester]

The thing is, while there are a lot of kids who hate school, for many, that hatred isn't enough to cause them to want to ctb. Along with that, suicide is quite complex and most children who ctb are doing so for more reasons than just school alone. In some cases, school isn't even one of the main factors in their suicidal ideation, or even a factor at all.

 

[Thekla]

The thing is, while there are a lot of kids who hate school, for many, that hatred isn't enough to cause them to want to ctb. Along with that, suicide is quite complex and most children who ctb are doing so for more reasons than just school alone. In some cases, school isn't even one of the main factors in their suicidal ideation, or even a factor at all.

Okay? I'm not insinuating that it's the only possible reason, just that those cases exist. I've seen it firsthand. It was my first experience with death.

I grew up in a very prestigious family, so I was put in stereotypically 'good' schools that placed a lot of expectations on their students. One of those students killed themselves due to the stress. I knew them personally. I'm not saying that their only reason was schooling, but I cannot deny that it was one of, if not the main reason they did it. I miss them every fucking day of my life.

Even if you want to be pedantic about it, yes, it might be technically true that it's not the main reason, but it's kinda fucked up we don't even acknowledge it as being a possibility.

Like, I'm not attempting to offend you, but suicide is not always complex. I want to kill myself because I'm a fucking dumbass who can't do math to save her life. If I were a little smarter, I wouldn't be here right now. My only "abuse" was being stupid and being treated as stupid. There's nothing complex about that.

 

[EvisceratedJester]

Okay? I'm not insinuating that it's the only possible reason, just that those cases exist. I've seen it firsthand. It was my first experience with death.

I grew up in a very prestigious family, so I was put in stereotypically 'good' schools that placed a lot of expectations on their students. One of those students killed themselves due to the stress. I knew them personally. I'm not saying that their only reason was schooling, but I cannot deny that it was one of, if not the main reason they did it. I miss them every fucking day of my life.

Okay, but a lot of schools don't put high expectations on their students though and a lot of kids hate schooling for other reasons (boredom, bullying, etc). I would say that, at least where I live, a lot of the schools generally had pretty reasonable expectations for their students. To be honest, I feel like the school you went to is probably not a good representation of what school looks like for most people...

 

[Thekla]

Okay, but a lot of schools don't put high expectations on their students though and a lot of kids hate schooling for other reasons (boredom, bullying, etc). I would say that, at least where I live, a lot of the schools generally had pretty reasonable expectations for their students. To be honest, I feel like the school you went to is probably not a good representation of what school looks like for most people...

Once again, you're right, most people don't kill themselves, that is true. I do not understand why you're here telling me things I already know. I understand my experience is unique, I understand that I'm uniquely fucked up. You don't need to remind me. What is the point of this?

Are you trying to say that students have OTHER reasons to kill themselves? Because in no way, shape, or form did I suggest otherwise.

 

[Anonymousa]

I hated school so much too and was first suicidal cus of it and has definitely been traumatic to me. I still get nightmares about it. tho that wasn't cus I was worried about not passing and not being able to do the work but I just couldn't emotionally deal with the work being just generally stressful, boring and torturous to do and the amount of hours I had to be there as well as fear of teachers getting angry and disappointed at me and punishing me. I just wanted to get home as quick as possible when there.

Tho I understand the worry of not being good enough as grades and such can be seen as a important thing to the child at the time with pressure from family and teachers. School is one of the biggest parts of a person's life at that point in time so its understandable to feel suicidal or depressed from not being good enough. Schools how they are now are terrible with the amount of pressure they put on children and how they don't accommodate for every kind of child and how its forced onto us a lot of the time. Honestly so immoral and awful to force children to have to go through this kind of thing.

 

[Thekla]

Tho I understand the worry of not being good enough as grades and such can be seen as a important thing to the child at the time with pressure from family and teachers. School is one of the biggest parts of a person's life at that point in time so its understandable to feel suicidal or depressed from not being good enough. Schools how they are now are terrible with the amount of pressure they put on children and how they don't accommodate for every kind of child and how its forced onto us a lot of the time. Honestly so immoral and awful to force children to have to go through this kind of thing.

This is something most people (including apparently some people on this website) don't seem to understand. It is LITERALLY your life for the first 18 years of your life! You have no choice! Failing in my eyes was literally a death sentence that I could not avoid. The work was so hard for me, and I tried so hard every single day.

Children are told from such a young age that they must be exceptional or risk being a "failure", but by definition most will not be exceptional. It's so cruel. I'm so sorry you had to go through that.

 

[permanently tired]

I think the problem with school is its rigidness. I find academics horribly boring and it was only exacerbated by my mother forcing me to go to weekend tutoring for a large part of my childhood. My grades weren't even bad. She was obsessed with trying to make me "smarter." Did I learn anything? No, I refused to listen to anyone or do any work though I did read the passages bc I like stories. School is all about grades and thinking in a way that begets those grades. I wanted to think as I pleased. If someone tells me 2+2=4 idgaf bc it's always going to 4. At least with literature I could interpret however I wished. My problem with school is it doesn't let you do anything outside of what they tell you. Imo, being told something is, is uninteresting whereas reaching a conclusion yourself is stimulating. I understand not every subject offers room for free thinking, but does every subject need criteria to be met or u get shit grades?

It's also incredibly stupid how society hates artists. If someone says they want to be one, everyone tells them they're going to be poor. Fuck this society where one's interest has little chance of earning them a living.