Discussion Did anyone else go to a bad school?

[SovietSuicide]

Reflecting on my life I think my school experience really framed how I feel about the world & who I became & the lack of support enabled the path of life I took.

I knew I went to a bad school, in a poor part of my country but I got curious and read some of the reviews they have for reviewing schools and wow they are like national scandal level bad.

Did you go to a bad school? Do you think it directed the course of your life?

It hurts extra because these people fucked up my life but from their perspective I was just a number and an inconvenience. A lot of my mental issues stem from school. Places like that change you.
A lot of parents just don't care, they want the quickest school to get to so they don't have to drive you, they don't bother comparing schools, they don't give a fuck & teaching attracts all kinds of people so schools can really fucking deteriorate. One school I know, playtime was them walking around a concrete room in a circle. My school had isolation rooms so it was basically like adseg in prison, fucked up.

 

[S_IsMyUsername]

I absolutely feel for you. I was in a children's home for years and was physically mishandled there and also completely ignored by all the teachers and other staff, rather the opposite, they still actively lied in e.g. reports for the psychiatric ward to make me look worse.

Let me tell you: You are not alone, and believe me, many unfortunately suffer such a fate, if they do not have the luck to grow up in the right circumstances.

 

[sserafim]

I went to a middle school where I was bullied, I don't know if that counts as a "bad school"…

I think it did affect the course of my life. Being bullied has made me cynical and misanthropic, and has left me with emotional scars and trauma. I think I have PTSD due to it. I don't trust anyone in this world. You can be betrayed at any time, by anybody. I have social anxiety due to my bad experience and I have trouble forming connections with people. I struggle to open up to and to connect with others. I have trouble letting people in

 

[dead_milky]

not the level of "bad" as yours, but my primary/middle school was terrible. My homeroom (?) Teacher hated me for nothing. She loved to preach positivity and friendship whilst fueling all conflicts in our class. She saw people as good or bad and she would never change her view, no matter what the person did. I was always bad, the girl who was bullied was always good, even if she was the bully in the past and I was more morally gray. Nowadays I saw her taking part in these obnoxious things for autism awareness like making the kids in her class paint those cringe blue puzzle things (because they obviously won't even do enough research to know the puzzle is not rlly used abymore) or making everyone watch videos on that whilst simultaneously ignoring me being potentially autistic for me whole school experience, saying I'm a bad person instead. I got diagnosed the moment I left this school because the teachers and counselors were that much better. She tried to guilt trip me into saying I'm a bad person, too. Both in private and in public.

 

[ChronicallyCynical]

I was bullied throughout primary and high school. I'd say the acceptance in school environments is actually pretty poor. No matter how much they try to act all anti-bullying or anti-this or anti-that, the bullying is a major issue, resolved with maybe a band-aid. It sets up kids very poorly and gives them scars they carry into their teenagehood where they reopen and cause problems that are harder to deal with now that emotions are much more intense.

Worse, the teachers were not the best at handling students they thought needed help socialising, instead acting like it's the students' fault for not trying to socialise, when... well, I certainly tried. I have had at least three years worth of trying, asking around to see who would accept me, to see who would care. Once I learned they would ignore me, reject me, laugh in my face, and mock me, or they would only accept me if there was some "use" for me in the group - specifically to take up roles nobody wanted -, I learned there was no use asking. Social isolation is a very real thing, forced upon one by their environment and not because of something they did. Or, if I had done something wrong, I still don't know what it is. Was I too boring? Was I too ugly? Too socially awkward? Could I not communicate properly? Did I freak people out somehow? Was it my habits?

Also, it turns out, that my school was typically at the bottom half of the league tables for schools in my country.

I thought I did poorly, but seeing that I did poorly among people who did poorly, maybe I just did average. At the same time, I wonder if that meant charity/pity was given to me in consideration of my university applications. I would loathe that, to be honest. I really hope that I at least got there on my own merit, but the feeling of being an imposter at this point is incredibly strong; sometimes so demotivating that it leaves me without the energy to continue my studies for the day. Then I fall behind and feel even more like the imposter.

I wish public schools at least, could be equal, and produce relatively equally good results, but there is a huge difference in the performance levels of the top schools and the bottom half - sometimes the percentage of passes of a certain number of courses at a certain level is 2x or 3x higher for the best schools as compared to the worst schools. I don't think it has to do with the school populace either, and it does have some correlation with the poverty index - though it's not perfect and there's clearly more to it.

 

[formerlyknown]

had a similar experience to other people in the comments. I was also bullied in my school, which I studied until before the high school. the bullying made me very self aware of my body and up until this day, I can't wear tank tops because of something it was said to me. no bully of mine was ever punished, despite the school being aware, the teachers, the direction, they all knew, my parents went there on several occasions because they were aware of the situation, but alas, nothing happened.

If you come from a small city like me, you can't just say "oh, switch schools" because I didn't have that opportunity. School is a place where kids spend a lot of their time, so I do think that going to a bad school can really fuck you up.

 

[Boudika]

I was bullied so much in elementary school that I went from being a charismatic, extroverted child to a closed-off, extremely introverted, antisocial, awkward young adult.

So the question is what can be counted as a bad school.

In theory, for the first 2 years of high school I was in an elite school for very smart or rich kids. You will say, great school, right? Well I wouldn't say. Students despised you if you weren't from a big city. The teachers were worse - the man who taught me biology regularly mentally abused me, and one of the female teachers had a detachment for hitting a student.

I transferred in my second year. High school in my small town, considered "bad" and with a "low level". Yet in it I found peace, staying among friends and getting along with teachers. It is here that I have the strength to do any learning. So now the question - what do we consider a bad school?

 

[Duality]

I've attended a few different schools, but one of them was particularly bad. I wasn't bullied, but it was in a very poor part of town and it was unfortunately reflected by most of the students that attended. I'm not saying poor = criminal, although I'm not sure what was up in that community. Frankly most of the students weren't going to have a future, and there was at least one person per class whose life was cut short every other month.

To have that sort of life and come out successful would have been extremely difficult. Thankfully I left after a year and never looked back.