What experiences in high school affected you so much that it altered your future?

[Andylusion]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I absolutely hated school. Hate the people there. Hated the kids. Hated the teachers. I would be hard pressed to come up with anything good about that prison camp.

I was an outcast of outcasts. I didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't particularly athletic. I most certainly wasn't that smart. I wasn't even nerdy enough to be a nerd. Not popular enough, to be with the "in crowd". Not rebellious enough to be the the rebels. With no one to defend me, I was an easy target. And kids love nothing more, than an easy target to pick on, that no one will stand up for. That was me. As a service to the entire schools pride and ego.

And the teachers were no better. Had one of the popular girls, enjoy some fun at my expense in class, until I finally snapped at her, calling her a cow. (which for me, is about a vulgar as I get). The teacher who had been there the entire time, gave me detention, and let her go. Had another time where I was required to give a class presentation, only to get heckled and mocked from a guy in the front of the class. After enduring insult after insult, I looked up to see the teacher just sitting back in his chair smilingly brilliantly at me, as if to say 'well sucks to be you loser'.

That isn't to say it didn't work for some people, I'm sure. I knew of people who enjoyed school, and more power to them.

But it most certainly didn't work for me. Unfortunately, my well intentioned parents, were both public school teachers. Both were firm in their unwavering support of the school system.

To be fair to them, I can't blame them for that. It would be nearly impossible to spend your entire working life in a system you didn't believe in. Between the two of them, I wager they put in about 85 years into the system.

Regardless, the result was that the abuse I suffered at school, was met with skepticism and dismissed. I was told I was 'being negative' and that I was just misunderstanding the people who harassed and abused me on a routine basis.

This was particularly bad for my poor mother. Again, it's hard to not give her some a fair shake, because after all... she's kept in touch with every single person she went to high school with, even to this day. Now in her mid-70s, she still hasn't missed a high school reunion. I have not spoken with a single person from my school, in 20 years. Now, I don't think I would be able to, since I can't remember a single person's name from my school.

But my mother never understood the extreme wedge that she unintentionally created between us. She complained constantly that I never talked to her, but then.... who ever wants to talk to someone, who never believes anything they say? Why bother talking to a mother who will simply deny your pain, and claim you are just making it up because you are so negative.

It is impossible to calculate the damage public school did. One of the reasons I never wanted, and never will, have children is because I can't stand the idea of putting a child through, what I went through.

Nevertheless, I have a unique and burning hatred for public schools. It's a fire I'll likely carry to my grave. When I argue here against schools, I try and keep it based on the facts, like low education outcomes, and the high cost.

But the reality is, I think nearly ever public school should be burned to the ground with thermite, and then turned into a land fill. Too many students are abused in public schools, and no one does anything about it.

One of the reasons I support private schools, is because in a private school, a student is also a customer. Teachers that abuse kids the way I was abused, would be fired, because they would cause the school to lose money. Public schools couldn't care less. They lose nothing, if you remove your kid from their school. They got your tax money, whether you are happy or not. Same is true of school bullying. Not all, but many private schools have strict rules against bullying, because again, a student that leaves, is bad for business.

Anywho.... terrible experience, I wouldn't wish on anyone, not even those I don't like.

First of all, I believe you, and I'm sorry.

I can excuse teachers being overwhelmed. It's an easily overwhelming job. But I cannot excuse cruelty.

But I hope you realize you do just what your parents do when you want all public schools "burnt to the ground". Perhaps your parents dismissed your experience. It sounds like they certainly did. You're not dismissing a lot of kids' decent, if not good or great, experience by wanting to "burn the schools to the ground". Isn't that exactly what your parents did? Taking YOUR experience and extrapoling it to everyone?

True...... however the cruelty and evil that is inflicted upon the minority of students, for the sake of the majority who enjoy it... is not a good excuse to me.

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind, none whatsoever.... that those students who were cruel, and evil, and abusive to me for over a decade of my life..... likely greatly enjoyed their school experience.

And why would they not.... After all, they had their group of friends that stood up for them. That overlooked their abuse. That defended them no matter what. And teachers that take sides, rather than enforce what is right.

How much different school life must be, when you can chuck rocks and sticks at outcasts, sending them to the hospital, forcing them to wear an eye patch for weeks, and all your friends happily surround you when questioned, and insist you had nothing to do with it.

I was standing by myself minding my own business, when I was hit directly in the eye, rush to a hospital, and for the next few months wearing an eye patch. You ever had a stick or whatever it was, jammed into your eye socket? The laughs.... snickers... and no one owned up to it. An accident. Still don't know who did it. And no one was penalized.

It was laughable the number of "accidents" that happened during my school time. I had the fun experience of doing the 'trust fall'. If you don't know what that is, which a video on it. You just fall backward into people who will catch you. As the name implies, trusting they will catch you. While kids much heavier than me, were caught, and put back on the feet, I found myself laying on the ground, while those standing around snickered and laughed. Another accident.

I never considered myself smart, but even the most stupid of people knows a pattern when you see it.

Great fun for all those people. I'm sure school was an endless euphoric joy, for those happy students. Like you said, I'm sure they had a fantastic time.

But it wasn't just that I had people who enjoyed making me miserable, it was not not one would even stand up for the outcast being abused. Not once in all the years I was in public schools, not even one time, did a teacher or a student, ever stand and say "Hey.... leave him alone". If that had happened one time in my entire life, I wager I would have a different view than I do today.

So whether they directly engaged in abuse, or were merely intentionally overlooking it... all those happy joyful students, and the teachers who did nothing to stop it... are all guilty. All of them.

You don't need to worry about this old man now.... I too old to do anything crazy, and I certainly follow the law. But don't think if they ever made it legal, that I wouldn't be the first to douse that building with all the gasoline I could afford to buy, and then for the first time, really enjoy a school bon fire.

 

[Andylusion]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I absolutely hated school. Hate the people there. Hated the kids. Hated the teachers. I would be hard pressed to come up with anything good about that prison camp.

I was an outcast of outcasts. I didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't particularly athletic. I most certainly wasn't that smart. I wasn't even nerdy enough to be a nerd. Not popular enough, to be with the "in crowd". Not rebellious enough to be the the rebels. With no one to defend me, I was an easy target. And kids love nothing more, than an easy target to pick on, that no one will stand up for. That was me. As a service to the entire schools pride and ego.

And the teachers were no better. Had one of the popular girls, enjoy some fun at my expense in class, until I finally snapped at her, calling her a cow. (which for me, is about a vulgar as I get). The teacher who had been there the entire time, gave me detention, and let her go. Had another time where I was required to give a class presentation, only to get heckled and mocked from a guy in the front of the class. After enduring insult after insult, I looked up to see the teacher just sitting back in his chair smilingly brilliantly at me, as if to say 'well sucks to be you loser'.

That isn't to say it didn't work for some people, I'm sure. I knew of people who enjoyed school, and more power to them.

But it most certainly didn't work for me. Unfortunately, my well intentioned parents, were both public school teachers. Both were firm in their unwavering support of the school system.

To be fair to them, I can't blame them for that. It would be nearly impossible to spend your entire working life in a system you didn't believe in. Between the two of them, I wager they put in about 85 years into the system.

Regardless, the result was that the abuse I suffered at school, was met with skepticism and dismissed. I was told I was 'being negative' and that I was just misunderstanding the people who harassed and abused me on a routine basis.

This was particularly bad for my poor mother. Again, it's hard to not give her some a fair shake, because after all... she's kept in touch with every single person she went to high school with, even to this day. Now in her mid-70s, she still hasn't missed a high school reunion. I have not spoken with a single person from my school, in 20 years. Now, I don't think I would be able to, since I can't remember a single person's name from my school.

But my mother never understood the extreme wedge that she unintentionally created between us. She complained constantly that I never talked to her, but then.... who ever wants to talk to someone, who never believes anything they say? Why bother talking to a mother who will simply deny your pain, and claim you are just making it up because you are so negative.

It is impossible to calculate the damage public school did. One of the reasons I never wanted, and never will, have children is because I can't stand the idea of putting a child through, what I went through.

Nevertheless, I have a unique and burning hatred for public schools. It's a fire I'll likely carry to my grave. When I argue here against schools, I try and keep it based on the facts, like low education outcomes, and the high cost.

But the reality is, I think nearly ever public school should be burned to the ground with thermite, and then turned into a land fill. Too many students are abused in public schools, and no one does anything about it.

One of the reasons I support private schools, is because in a private school, a student is also a customer. Teachers that abuse kids the way I was abused, would be fired, because they would cause the school to lose money. Public schools couldn't care less. They lose nothing, if you remove your kid from their school. They got your tax money, whether you are happy or not. Same is true of school bullying. Not all, but many private schools have strict rules against bullying, because again, a student that leaves, is bad for business.

Anywho.... terrible experience, I wouldn't wish on anyone, not even those I don't like.

SO similar to my own sentiments. I remember travelling back to the old neighborhood after decades living elsewhere, seeing how everything had been developed, new roads, new buildings, everything different except The Prison. Which is what I always called it. It looked exactly the same. Although there was no reason to expect it I felt a deep disappointment that it hadn't been obliterated by a meteor. But if one could plan that I would happily sit across the street and watch it burn, munching popcorn, applauding and saying, "good riddance". And then I'd spit on it.

I've gotten regular invitations to high school reunions over the years including number 50 recently. Never went to a single one, never wanted to. Fuck 'em.

Yeah man, I'd be right there with you ready to roast some marshmallows over the flames, with something cold to drink.

I got one of those invitations a long time ago. I felt nothing, but a slight irritation that after all these years, they still managed to waste some minutes of my life trying to figure out what it was they sent me. The paper was disguised as something important, like typical junk mail. After I got through all that "It's been a long time, and we haven't heard from you" to the part where it finally said "Invitation to your 25th high school reunion" I dumped it in the trash, wish for my 10 minutes back, and moved on.

There are only two people in the entire school I didn't hate. One I felt badly for. She tracked me down, and invited me to her after-prom party, and then her graduation party. The story is odd at best. I volunteered to help at the local homeless shelter, with a group from school. As per usual, the person who dropped me off, ditched me, and I asked the teacher that was involved, if they could take me home. Instead he found some guy there who agreed to drop me off.

However, he also agreed to take some little Asian girl home too, and instead went on a sight seeing tour of the city, while hitting on the girl. I had nothing better to do, so I just sat in the back, reading something. Both forgot I was even in the car, until almost 30 minutes of what should have been a 15 minute trip, they remembered I was there and quickly dropped me off at home.

Never knew her name. And she never asked mine. I only knew who it was, because the invitation had her photo on it, and I recognized her from that one night. But she put in the effort to figure out who I was, got my address from who knows, and sent me invitations to her social stuff. I felt bad about it, because there was no way she could have known how much pure hatred I had for everyone else there. Not a chance I'm going to some social event with those walking talking turds bragging about how much vomit they had from the beer pong party over the weekend.

Other than her, there was one other seemingly decent girl named Haley, but beyond that school was just a fantasy dungeon out of a B rated horror flick, filled with nothing but gargoyles that happen to have a humanoid appearance. Go watch the movie DOOM, and that's what school was to me.

Take otherwise decent people, put them in a government funded camp, where they are bitten by some terrible disease that turns them all into arrogant self-centered hideous cannibalistic creatures. I watched otherwise friends, turn on each other, because one was accepted by the 'in-crowd' and the other was not. I watched these pathetic boys, comparing what name brand shoes they wore, and talk about what clothing store they went to, the same way men my age compare what idiotic car they drove to work. Girls all dressing up, or even dressed down like whores, and looking down on each other, for no reason. Teachers that didn't care. School policies that only enshrined bullying.

What a crap hole. What a total utter crap hole. The irony is, this was Upper Arlington High School. One of the top rated public schools in central Ohio. Spoiled brat yuppie kids, driving daddies "used" 20,000 miles BMW. Teach your kids some manors, politeness, and decency, before you teach them to drive.

Dude aren't you an adult now?

I mean 25 years on? Shouldn't you be getting over this now? I'm a public school teacher and I have never been to my high school reunion. Look, a LOT of us didn't love high school. This is like a normal thing. This is not a special thing.

Sure. But the thread came up, so I gave my opinion on the matter. Just because I'm responding here and now to this particular topic, doesn't mean I'm sitting here for the last 20 years thinking about it.

Yeah, I'm 42. This is long old stories now. Just because I answer thoroughly and honestly, doesn't mean I'm sitting here for decades repeating 'evil schools' like Rain Man repeating judge wapner.

Just a thread post. That's all. It's all good.

 

[xband]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I got in two fist fights in High School which altered my future.

 

[xband]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I got in two fist fights in High School which altered my future.

 

[xband]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I got in two fist fights in High School which altered my future.

I hated math in High School but the Navy forced me to learn it including differential and integral calculus. Proportional Navigation is Calculus. A planetary servo controlled gearbox befuddled me but not for long. It's the Secant Gyro. The Stable Element is a whole different ball of wax.

 

[SweetSue92]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I absolutely hated school. Hate the people there. Hated the kids. Hated the teachers. I would be hard pressed to come up with anything good about that prison camp.

I was an outcast of outcasts. I didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't particularly athletic. I most certainly wasn't that smart. I wasn't even nerdy enough to be a nerd. Not popular enough, to be with the "in crowd". Not rebellious enough to be the the rebels. With no one to defend me, I was an easy target. And kids love nothing more, than an easy target to pick on, that no one will stand up for. That was me. As a service to the entire schools pride and ego.

And the teachers were no better. Had one of the popular girls, enjoy some fun at my expense in class, until I finally snapped at her, calling her a cow. (which for me, is about a vulgar as I get). The teacher who had been there the entire time, gave me detention, and let her go. Had another time where I was required to give a class presentation, only to get heckled and mocked from a guy in the front of the class. After enduring insult after insult, I looked up to see the teacher just sitting back in his chair smilingly brilliantly at me, as if to say 'well sucks to be you loser'.

That isn't to say it didn't work for some people, I'm sure. I knew of people who enjoyed school, and more power to them.

But it most certainly didn't work for me. Unfortunately, my well intentioned parents, were both public school teachers. Both were firm in their unwavering support of the school system.

To be fair to them, I can't blame them for that. It would be nearly impossible to spend your entire working life in a system you didn't believe in. Between the two of them, I wager they put in about 85 years into the system.

Regardless, the result was that the abuse I suffered at school, was met with skepticism and dismissed. I was told I was 'being negative' and that I was just misunderstanding the people who harassed and abused me on a routine basis.

This was particularly bad for my poor mother. Again, it's hard to not give her some a fair shake, because after all... she's kept in touch with every single person she went to high school with, even to this day. Now in her mid-70s, she still hasn't missed a high school reunion. I have not spoken with a single person from my school, in 20 years. Now, I don't think I would be able to, since I can't remember a single person's name from my school.

But my mother never understood the extreme wedge that she unintentionally created between us. She complained constantly that I never talked to her, but then.... who ever wants to talk to someone, who never believes anything they say? Why bother talking to a mother who will simply deny your pain, and claim you are just making it up because you are so negative.

It is impossible to calculate the damage public school did. One of the reasons I never wanted, and never will, have children is because I can't stand the idea of putting a child through, what I went through.

Nevertheless, I have a unique and burning hatred for public schools. It's a fire I'll likely carry to my grave. When I argue here against schools, I try and keep it based on the facts, like low education outcomes, and the high cost.

But the reality is, I think nearly ever public school should be burned to the ground with thermite, and then turned into a land fill. Too many students are abused in public schools, and no one does anything about it.

One of the reasons I support private schools, is because in a private school, a student is also a customer. Teachers that abuse kids the way I was abused, would be fired, because they would cause the school to lose money. Public schools couldn't care less. They lose nothing, if you remove your kid from their school. They got your tax money, whether you are happy or not. Same is true of school bullying. Not all, but many private schools have strict rules against bullying, because again, a student that leaves, is bad for business.

Anywho.... terrible experience, I wouldn't wish on anyone, not even those I don't like.

First of all, I believe you, and I'm sorry.

I can excuse teachers being overwhelmed. It's an easily overwhelming job. But I cannot excuse cruelty.

But I hope you realize you do just what your parents do when you want all public schools "burnt to the ground". Perhaps your parents dismissed your experience. It sounds like they certainly did. You're not dismissing a lot of kids' decent, if not good or great, experience by wanting to "burn the schools to the ground". Isn't that exactly what your parents did? Taking YOUR experience and extrapoling it to everyone?

True...... however the cruelty and evil that is inflicted upon the minority of students, for the sake of the majority who enjoy it... is not a good excuse to me.

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind, none whatsoever.... that those students who were cruel, and evil, and abusive to me for over a decade of my life..... likely greatly enjoyed their school experience.

And why would they not.... After all, they had their group of friends that stood up for them. That overlooked their abuse. That defended them no matter what. And teachers that take sides, rather than enforce what is right.

How much different school life must be, when you can chuck rocks and sticks at outcasts, sending them to the hospital, forcing them to wear an eye patch for weeks, and all your friends happily surround you when questioned, and insist you had nothing to do with it.

I was standing by myself minding my own business, when I was hit directly in the eye, rush to a hospital, and for the next few months wearing an eye patch. You ever had a stick or whatever it was, jammed into your eye socket? The laughs.... snickers... and no one owned up to it. An accident. Still don't know who did it. And no one was penalized.

It was laughable the number of "accidents" that happened during my school time. I had the fun experience of doing the 'trust fall'. If you don't know what that is, which a video on it. You just fall backward into people who will catch you. As the name implies, trusting they will catch you. While kids much heavier than me, were caught, and put back on the feet, I found myself laying on the ground, while those standing around snickered and laughed. Another accident.

I never considered myself smart, but even the most stupid of people knows a pattern when you see it.

Great fun for all those people. I'm sure school was an endless euphoric joy, for those happy students. Like you said, I'm sure they had a fantastic time.

But it wasn't just that I had people who enjoyed making me miserable, it was not not one would even stand up for the outcast being abused. Not once in all the years I was in public schools, not even one time, did a teacher or a student, ever stand and say "Hey.... leave him alone". If that had happened one time in my entire life, I wager I would have a different view than I do today.

So whether they directly engaged in abuse, or were merely intentionally overlooking it... all those happy joyful students, and the teachers who did nothing to stop it... are all guilty. All of them.

You don't need to worry about this old man now.... I too old to do anything crazy, and I certainly follow the law. But don't think if they ever made it legal, that I wouldn't be the first to douse that building with all the gasoline I could afford to buy, and then for the first time, really enjoy a school bon fire.

Here's the thing about forgiveness though. It doesn't do a darn thing for the jerks and cowards you went to school with, especially if you don't have any more contact with them. But it frees you from this bitterness. And you have a lot of bitterness about this for a grown man. That's not good for you.

 

[Jackson]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I absolutely hated school. Hate the people there. Hated the kids. Hated the teachers. I would be hard pressed to come up with anything good about that prison camp.

I was an outcast of outcasts. I didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't particularly athletic. I most certainly wasn't that smart. I wasn't even nerdy enough to be a nerd. Not popular enough, to be with the "in crowd". Not rebellious enough to be the the rebels. With no one to defend me, I was an easy target. And kids love nothing more, than an easy target to pick on, that no one will stand up for. That was me. As a service to the entire schools pride and ego.

And the teachers were no better. Had one of the popular girls, enjoy some fun at my expense in class, until I finally snapped at her, calling her a cow. (which for me, is about a vulgar as I get). The teacher who had been there the entire time, gave me detention, and let her go. Had another time where I was required to give a class presentation, only to get heckled and mocked from a guy in the front of the class. After enduring insult after insult, I looked up to see the teacher just sitting back in his chair smilingly brilliantly at me, as if to say 'well sucks to be you loser'.

That isn't to say it didn't work for some people, I'm sure. I knew of people who enjoyed school, and more power to them.

But it most certainly didn't work for me. Unfortunately, my well intentioned parents, were both public school teachers. Both were firm in their unwavering support of the school system.

To be fair to them, I can't blame them for that. It would be nearly impossible to spend your entire working life in a system you didn't believe in. Between the two of them, I wager they put in about 85 years into the system.

Regardless, the result was that the abuse I suffered at school, was met with skepticism and dismissed. I was told I was 'being negative' and that I was just misunderstanding the people who harassed and abused me on a routine basis.

This was particularly bad for my poor mother. Again, it's hard to not give her some a fair shake, because after all... she's kept in touch with every single person she went to high school with, even to this day. Now in her mid-70s, she still hasn't missed a high school reunion. I have not spoken with a single person from my school, in 20 years. Now, I don't think I would be able to, since I can't remember a single person's name from my school.

But my mother never understood the extreme wedge that she unintentionally created between us. She complained constantly that I never talked to her, but then.... who ever wants to talk to someone, who never believes anything they say? Why bother talking to a mother who will simply deny your pain, and claim you are just making it up because you are so negative.

It is impossible to calculate the damage public school did. One of the reasons I never wanted, and never will, have children is because I can't stand the idea of putting a child through, what I went through.

Nevertheless, I have a unique and burning hatred for public schools. It's a fire I'll likely carry to my grave. When I argue here against schools, I try and keep it based on the facts, like low education outcomes, and the high cost.

But the reality is, I think nearly ever public school should be burned to the ground with thermite, and then turned into a land fill. Too many students are abused in public schools, and no one does anything about it.

One of the reasons I support private schools, is because in a private school, a student is also a customer. Teachers that abuse kids the way I was abused, would be fired, because they would cause the school to lose money. Public schools couldn't care less. They lose nothing, if you remove your kid from their school. They got your tax money, whether you are happy or not. Same is true of school bullying. Not all, but many private schools have strict rules against bullying, because again, a student that leaves, is bad for business.

Andy.... what a terrible experience, I wouldn't wish on anyone, not even those I don't like.

Andy, my heart went out to you for those four years of hell. I wasn't sure who was worse...the teachers who did not stop this abuse or your parents attitude. And to think the cuts were so deep that you wouldn't want to have children of your own for fear they would be treated the same way you were, when actually you control your own destiny and your child would not experience the same...you would create an open dialogue where they could come to you with problems.

Did you ever open up to your parents and tell them the pain you experienced?

 

[Pogo]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I absolutely hated school. Hate the people there. Hated the kids. Hated the teachers. I would be hard pressed to come up with anything good about that prison camp.

I was an outcast of outcasts. I didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't particularly athletic. I most certainly wasn't that smart. I wasn't even nerdy enough to be a nerd. Not popular enough, to be with the "in crowd". Not rebellious enough to be the the rebels. With no one to defend me, I was an easy target. And kids love nothing more, than an easy target to pick on, that no one will stand up for. That was me. As a service to the entire schools pride and ego.

And the teachers were no better. Had one of the popular girls, enjoy some fun at my expense in class, until I finally snapped at her, calling her a cow. (which for me, is about a vulgar as I get). The teacher who had been there the entire time, gave me detention, and let her go. Had another time where I was required to give a class presentation, only to get heckled and mocked from a guy in the front of the class. After enduring insult after insult, I looked up to see the teacher just sitting back in his chair smilingly brilliantly at me, as if to say 'well sucks to be you loser'.

That isn't to say it didn't work for some people, I'm sure. I knew of people who enjoyed school, and more power to them.

But it most certainly didn't work for me. Unfortunately, my well intentioned parents, were both public school teachers. Both were firm in their unwavering support of the school system.

To be fair to them, I can't blame them for that. It would be nearly impossible to spend your entire working life in a system you didn't believe in. Between the two of them, I wager they put in about 85 years into the system.

Regardless, the result was that the abuse I suffered at school, was met with skepticism and dismissed. I was told I was 'being negative' and that I was just misunderstanding the people who harassed and abused me on a routine basis.

This was particularly bad for my poor mother. Again, it's hard to not give her some a fair shake, because after all... she's kept in touch with every single person she went to high school with, even to this day. Now in her mid-70s, she still hasn't missed a high school reunion. I have not spoken with a single person from my school, in 20 years. Now, I don't think I would be able to, since I can't remember a single person's name from my school.

But my mother never understood the extreme wedge that she unintentionally created between us. She complained constantly that I never talked to her, but then.... who ever wants to talk to someone, who never believes anything they say? Why bother talking to a mother who will simply deny your pain, and claim you are just making it up because you are so negative.

It is impossible to calculate the damage public school did. One of the reasons I never wanted, and never will, have children is because I can't stand the idea of putting a child through, what I went through.

Nevertheless, I have a unique and burning hatred for public schools. It's a fire I'll likely carry to my grave. When I argue here against schools, I try and keep it based on the facts, like low education outcomes, and the high cost.

But the reality is, I think nearly ever public school should be burned to the ground with thermite, and then turned into a land fill. Too many students are abused in public schools, and no one does anything about it.

One of the reasons I support private schools, is because in a private school, a student is also a customer. Teachers that abuse kids the way I was abused, would be fired, because they would cause the school to lose money. Public schools couldn't care less. They lose nothing, if you remove your kid from their school. They got your tax money, whether you are happy or not. Same is true of school bullying. Not all, but many private schools have strict rules against bullying, because again, a student that leaves, is bad for business.

Anywho.... terrible experience, I wouldn't wish on anyone, not even those I don't like.

SO similar to my own sentiments. I remember travelling back to the old neighborhood after decades living elsewhere, seeing how everything had been developed, new roads, new buildings, everything different except The Prison. Which is what I always called it. It looked exactly the same. Although there was no reason to expect it I felt a deep disappointment that it hadn't been obliterated by a meteor. But if one could plan that I would happily sit across the street and watch it burn, munching popcorn, applauding and saying, "good riddance". And then I'd spit on it.

I've gotten regular invitations to high school reunions over the years including number 50 recently. Never went to a single one, never wanted to. Fuck 'em.

Yeah man, I'd be right there with you ready to roast some marshmallows over the flames, with something cold to drink.

I got one of those invitations a long time ago. I felt nothing, but a slight irritation that after all these years, they still managed to waste some minutes of my life trying to figure out what it was they sent me. The paper was disguised as something important, like typical junk mail. After I got through all that "It's been a long time, and we haven't heard from you" to the part where it finally said "Invitation to your 25th high school reunion" I dumped it in the trash, wish for my 10 minutes back, and moved on.

There are only two people in the entire school I didn't hate. One I felt badly for. She tracked me down, and invited me to her after-prom party, and then her graduation party. The story is odd at best. I volunteered to help at the local homeless shelter, with a group from school. As per usual, the person who dropped me off, ditched me, and I asked the teacher that was involved, if they could take me home. Instead he found some guy there who agreed to drop me off.

However, he also agreed to take some little Asian girl home too, and instead went on a sight seeing tour of the city, while hitting on the girl. I had nothing better to do, so I just sat in the back, reading something. Both forgot I was even in the car, until almost 30 minutes of what should have been a 15 minute trip, they remembered I was there and quickly dropped me off at home.

Never knew her name. And she never asked mine. I only knew who it was, because the invitation had her photo on it, and I recognized her from that one night. But she put in the effort to figure out who I was, got my address from who knows, and sent me invitations to her social stuff. I felt bad about it, because there was no way she could have known how much pure hatred I had for everyone else there. Not a chance I'm going to some social event with those walking talking turds bragging about how much vomit they had from the beer pong party over the weekend.

Other than her, there was one other seemingly decent girl named Haley, but beyond that school was just a fantasy dungeon out of a B rated horror flick, filled with nothing but gargoyles that happen to have a humanoid appearance. Go watch the movie DOOM, and that's what school was to me.

Take otherwise decent people, put them in a government funded camp, where they are bitten by some terrible disease that turns them all into arrogant self-centered hideous cannibalistic creatures. I watched otherwise friends, turn on each other, because one was accepted by the 'in-crowd' and the other was not. I watched these pathetic boys, comparing what name brand shoes they wore, and talk about what clothing store they went to, the same way men my age compare what idiotic car they drove to work. Girls all dressing up, or even dressed down like whores, and looking down on each other, for no reason. Teachers that didn't care. School policies that only enshrined bullying.

What a crap hole. What a total utter crap hole. The irony is, this was Upper Arlington High School. One of the top rated public schools in central Ohio. Spoiled brat yuppie kids, driving daddies "used" 20,000 miles BMW. Teach your kids some manors, politeness, and decency, before you teach them to drive.

Dude aren't you an adult now?

I mean 25 years on? Shouldn't you be getting over this now? I'm a public school teacher and I have never been to my high school reunion. Look, a LOT of us didn't love high school. This is like a normal thing. This is not a special thing.

He's directly answering the question posed in the OP.

If you can't take the answers to that question perhaps it's not a good idea to read the thread, nomsane? But ragging on people for directly and honestly answering the question, where's that at.

 

[Jackson]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I absolutely hated school. Hate the people there. Hated the kids. Hated the teachers. I would be hard pressed to come up with anything good about that prison camp.

I was an outcast of outcasts. I didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't particularly athletic. I most certainly wasn't that smart. I wasn't even nerdy enough to be a nerd. Not popular enough, to be with the "in crowd". Not rebellious enough to be the the rebels. With no one to defend me, I was an easy target. And kids love nothing more, than an easy target to pick on, that no one will stand up for. That was me. As a service to the entire schools pride and ego.

And the teachers were no better. Had one of the popular girls, enjoy some fun at my expense in class, until I finally snapped at her, calling her a cow. (which for me, is about a vulgar as I get). The teacher who had been there the entire time, gave me detention, and let her go. Had another time where I was required to give a class presentation, only to get heckled and mocked from a guy in the front of the class. After enduring insult after insult, I looked up to see the teacher just sitting back in his chair smilingly brilliantly at me, as if to say 'well sucks to be you loser'.

That isn't to say it didn't work for some people, I'm sure. I knew of people who enjoyed school, and more power to them.

But it most certainly didn't work for me. Unfortunately, my well intentioned parents, were both public school teachers. Both were firm in their unwavering support of the school system.

To be fair to them, I can't blame them for that. It would be nearly impossible to spend your entire working life in a system you didn't believe in. Between the two of them, I wager they put in about 85 years into the system.

Regardless, the result was that the abuse I suffered at school, was met with skepticism and dismissed. I was told I was 'being negative' and that I was just misunderstanding the people who harassed and abused me on a routine basis.

This was particularly bad for my poor mother. Again, it's hard to not give her some a fair shake, because after all... she's kept in touch with every single person she went to high school with, even to this day. Now in her mid-70s, she still hasn't missed a high school reunion. I have not spoken with a single person from my school, in 20 years. Now, I don't think I would be able to, since I can't remember a single person's name from my school.

But my mother never understood the extreme wedge that she unintentionally created between us. She complained constantly that I never talked to her, but then.... who ever wants to talk to someone, who never believes anything they say? Why bother talking to a mother who will simply deny your pain, and claim you are just making it up because you are so negative.

It is impossible to calculate the damage public school did. One of the reasons I never wanted, and never will, have children is because I can't stand the idea of putting a child through, what I went through.

Nevertheless, I have a unique and burning hatred for public schools. It's a fire I'll likely carry to my grave. When I argue here against schools, I try and keep it based on the facts, like low education outcomes, and the high cost.

But the reality is, I think nearly ever public school should be burned to the ground with thermite, and then turned into a land fill. Too many students are abused in public schools, and no one does anything about it.

One of the reasons I support private schools, is because in a private school, a student is also a customer. Teachers that abuse kids the way I was abused, would be fired, because they would cause the school to lose money. Public schools couldn't care less. They lose nothing, if you remove your kid from their school. They got your tax money, whether you are happy or not. Same is true of school bullying. Not all, but many private schools have strict rules against bullying, because again, a student that leaves, is bad for business.

Anywho.... terrible experience, I wouldn't wish on anyone, not even those I don't like.

Sounds like a whole lot of blaming everyone else for YOUR failings. Never too late to grow up.

Are you completely devoid of empathy? Did you comprehend what he wrote?

 

[Jackson]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I absolutely hated school. Hate the people there. Hated the kids. Hated the teachers. I would be hard pressed to come up with anything good about that prison camp.

I was an outcast of outcasts. I didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't particularly athletic. I most certainly wasn't that smart. I wasn't even nerdy enough to be a nerd. Not popular enough, to be with the "in crowd". Not rebellious enough to be the the rebels. With no one to defend me, I was an easy target. And kids love nothing more, than an easy target to pick on, that no one will stand up for. That was me. As a service to the entire schools pride and ego.

And the teachers were no better. Had one of the popular girls, enjoy some fun at my expense in class, until I finally snapped at her, calling her a cow. (which for me, is about a vulgar as I get). The teacher who had been there the entire time, gave me detention, and let her go. Had another time where I was required to give a class presentation, only to get heckled and mocked from a guy in the front of the class. After enduring insult after insult, I looked up to see the teacher just sitting back in his chair smilingly brilliantly at me, as if to say 'well sucks to be you loser'.

That isn't to say it didn't work for some people, I'm sure. I knew of people who enjoyed school, and more power to them.

But it most certainly didn't work for me. Unfortunately, my well intentioned parents, were both public school teachers. Both were firm in their unwavering support of the school system.

To be fair to them, I can't blame them for that. It would be nearly impossible to spend your entire working life in a system you didn't believe in. Between the two of them, I wager they put in about 85 years into the system.

Regardless, the result was that the abuse I suffered at school, was met with skepticism and dismissed. I was told I was 'being negative' and that I was just misunderstanding the people who harassed and abused me on a routine basis.

This was particularly bad for my poor mother. Again, it's hard to not give her some a fair shake, because after all... she's kept in touch with every single person she went to high school with, even to this day. Now in her mid-70s, she still hasn't missed a high school reunion. I have not spoken with a single person from my school, in 20 years. Now, I don't think I would be able to, since I can't remember a single person's name from my school.

But my mother never understood the extreme wedge that she unintentionally created between us. She complained constantly that I never talked to her, but then.... who ever wants to talk to someone, who never believes anything they say? Why bother talking to a mother who will simply deny your pain, and claim you are just making it up because you are so negative.

It is impossible to calculate the damage public school did. One of the reasons I never wanted, and never will, have children is because I can't stand the idea of putting a child through, what I went through.

Nevertheless, I have a unique and burning hatred for public schools. It's a fire I'll likely carry to my grave. When I argue here against schools, I try and keep it based on the facts, like low education outcomes, and the high cost.

But the reality is, I think nearly ever public school should be burned to the ground with thermite, and then turned into a land fill. Too many students are abused in public schools, and no one does anything about it.

One of the reasons I support private schools, is because in a private school, a student is also a customer. Teachers that abuse kids the way I was abused, would be fired, because they would cause the school to lose money. Public schools couldn't care less. They lose nothing, if you remove your kid from their school. They got your tax money, whether you are happy or not. Same is true of school bullying. Not all, but many private schools have strict rules against bullying, because again, a student that leaves, is bad for business.

Anywho.... terrible experience, I wouldn't wish on anyone, not even those I don't like.

SO similar to my own sentiments. I remember travelling back to the old neighborhood after decades living elsewhere, seeing how everything had been developed, new roads, new buildings, everything different except The Prison. Which is what I always called it. It looked exactly the same. Although there was no reason to expect it I felt a deep disappointment that it hadn't been obliterated by a meteor. But if one could plan that I would happily sit across the street and watch it burn, munching popcorn, applauding and saying, "good riddance". And then I'd spit on it.

I've gotten regular invitations to high school reunions over the years including number 50 recently. Never went to a single one, never wanted to. Fuck 'em.

Another loser who blames the world for the fact that you live in it. Talk about arrested development.

Sounds like you just may be one of those witchy teachers who have their favorites and delight in making life miserable for those considered outcasts.

 

[Jackson]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I absolutely hated school. Hate the people there. Hated the kids. Hated the teachers. I would be hard pressed to come up with anything good about that prison camp.

I was an outcast of outcasts. I didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't particularly athletic. I most certainly wasn't that smart. I wasn't even nerdy enough to be a nerd. Not popular enough, to be with the "in crowd". Not rebellious enough to be the the rebels. With no one to defend me, I was an easy target. And kids love nothing more, than an easy target to pick on, that no one will stand up for. That was me. As a service to the entire schools pride and ego.

And the teachers were no better. Had one of the popular girls, enjoy some fun at my expense in class, until I finally snapped at her, calling her a cow. (which for me, is about a vulgar as I get). The teacher who had been there the entire time, gave me detention, and let her go. Had another time where I was required to give a class presentation, only to get heckled and mocked from a guy in the front of the class. After enduring insult after insult, I looked up to see the teacher just sitting back in his chair smilingly brilliantly at me, as if to say 'well sucks to be you loser'.

That isn't to say it didn't work for some people, I'm sure. I knew of people who enjoyed school, and more power to them.

But it most certainly didn't work for me. Unfortunately, my well intentioned parents, were both public school teachers. Both were firm in their unwavering support of the school system.

To be fair to them, I can't blame them for that. It would be nearly impossible to spend your entire working life in a system you didn't believe in. Between the two of them, I wager they put in about 85 years into the system.

Regardless, the result was that the abuse I suffered at school, was met with skepticism and dismissed. I was told I was 'being negative' and that I was just misunderstanding the people who harassed and abused me on a routine basis.

This was particularly bad for my poor mother. Again, it's hard to not give her some a fair shake, because after all... she's kept in touch with every single person she went to high school with, even to this day. Now in her mid-70s, she still hasn't missed a high school reunion. I have not spoken with a single person from my school, in 20 years. Now, I don't think I would be able to, since I can't remember a single person's name from my school.

But my mother never understood the extreme wedge that she unintentionally created between us. She complained constantly that I never talked to her, but then.... who ever wants to talk to someone, who never believes anything they say? Why bother talking to a mother who will simply deny your pain, and claim you are just making it up because you are so negative.

It is impossible to calculate the damage public school did. One of the reasons I never wanted, and never will, have children is because I can't stand the idea of putting a child through, what I went through.

Nevertheless, I have a unique and burning hatred for public schools. It's a fire I'll likely carry to my grave. When I argue here against schools, I try and keep it based on the facts, like low education outcomes, and the high cost.

But the reality is, I think nearly ever public school should be burned to the ground with thermite, and then turned into a land fill. Too many students are abused in public schools, and no one does anything about it.

One of the reasons I support private schools, is because in a private school, a student is also a customer. Teachers that abuse kids the way I was abused, would be fired, because they would cause the school to lose money. Public schools couldn't care less. They lose nothing, if you remove your kid from their school. They got your tax money, whether you are happy or not. Same is true of school bullying. Not all, but many private schools have strict rules against bullying, because again, a student that leaves, is bad for business.

Anywho.... terrible experience, I wouldn't wish on anyone, not even those I don't like.

SO similar to my own sentiments. I remember travelling back to the old neighborhood after decades living elsewhere, seeing how everything had been developed, new roads, new buildings, everything different except The Prison. Which is what I always called it. It looked exactly the same. Although there was no reason to expect it I felt a deep disappointment that it hadn't been obliterated by a meteor. But if one could plan that I would happily sit across the street and watch it burn, munching popcorn, applauding and saying, "good riddance". And then I'd spit on it.

I've gotten regular invitations to high school reunions over the years including number 50 recently. Never went to a single one, never wanted to. Fuck 'em.

Yeah man, I'd be right there with you ready to roast some marshmallows over the flames, with something cold to drink.

I got one of those invitations a long time ago. I felt nothing, but a slight irritation that after all these years, they still managed to waste some minutes of my life trying to figure out what it was they sent me. The paper was disguised as something important, like typical junk mail. After I got through all that "It's been a long time, and we haven't heard from you" to the part where it finally said "Invitation to your 25th high school reunion" I dumped it in the trash, wish for my 10 minutes back, and moved on.

There are only two people in the entire school I didn't hate. One I felt badly for. She tracked me down, and invited me to her after-prom party, and then her graduation party. The story is odd at best. I volunteered to help at the local homeless shelter, with a group from school. As per usual, the person who dropped me off, ditched me, and I asked the teacher that was involved, if they could take me home. Instead he found some guy there who agreed to drop me off.

However, he also agreed to take some little Asian girl home too, and instead went on a sight seeing tour of the city, while hitting on the girl. I had nothing better to do, so I just sat in the back, reading something. Both forgot I was even in the car, until almost 30 minutes of what should have been a 15 minute trip, they remembered I was there and quickly dropped me off at home.

Never knew her name. And she never asked mine. I only knew who it was, because the invitation had her photo on it, and I recognized her from that one night. But she put in the effort to figure out who I was, got my address from who knows, and sent me invitations to her social stuff. I felt bad about it, because there was no way she could have known how much pure hatred I had for everyone else there. Not a chance I'm going to some social event with those walking talking turds bragging about how much vomit they had from the beer pong party over the weekend.

Other than her, there was one other seemingly decent girl named Haley, but beyond that school was just a fantasy dungeon out of a B rated horror flick, filled with nothing but gargoyles that happen to have a humanoid appearance. Go watch the movie DOOM, and that's what school was to me.

Take otherwise decent people, put them in a government funded camp, where they are bitten by some terrible disease that turns them all into arrogant self-centered hideous cannibalistic creatures. I watched otherwise friends, turn on each other, because one was accepted by the 'in-crowd' and the other was not. I watched these pathetic boys, comparing what name brand shoes they wore, and talk about what clothing store they went to, the same way men my age compare what idiotic car they drove to work. Girls all dressing up, or even dressed down like whores, and looking down on each other, for no reason. Teachers that didn't care. School policies that only enshrined bullying.

What a crap hole. What a total utter crap hole. The irony is, this was Upper Arlington High School. One of the top rated public schools in central Ohio. Spoiled brat yuppie kids, driving daddies "used" 20,000 miles BMW. Teach your kids some manors, politeness, and decency, before you teach them to drive.

Dude aren't you an adult now?

I mean 25 years on? Shouldn't you be getting over this now? I'm a public school teacher and I have never been to my high school reunion. Look, a LOT of us didn't love high school. This is like a normal thing. This is not a special thing.

He experienced cruelty from school relationships,, authority figures and had no supporter relief from his own parents. All of this during his most vulnerable time of his life. I commend his to becoming a good citizen and moving on.

 

[Jackson]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I absolutely hated school. Hate the people there. Hated the kids. Hated the teachers. I would be hard pressed to come up with anything good about that prison camp.

I was an outcast of outcasts. I didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't particularly athletic. I most certainly wasn't that smart. I wasn't even nerdy enough to be a nerd. Not popular enough, to be with the "in crowd". Not rebellious enough to be the the rebels. With no one to defend me, I was an easy target. And kids love nothing more, than an easy target to pick on, that no one will stand up for. That was me. As a service to the entire schools pride and ego.

And the teachers were no better. Had one of the popular girls, enjoy some fun at my expense in class, until I finally snapped at her, calling her a cow. (which for me, is about a vulgar as I get). The teacher who had been there the entire time, gave me detention, and let her go. Had another time where I was required to give a class presentation, only to get heckled and mocked from a guy in the front of the class. After enduring insult after insult, I looked up to see the teacher just sitting back in his chair smilingly brilliantly at me, as if to say 'well sucks to be you loser'.

That isn't to say it didn't work for some people, I'm sure. I knew of people who enjoyed school, and more power to them.

But it most certainly didn't work for me. Unfortunately, my well intentioned parents, were both public school teachers. Both were firm in their unwavering support of the school system.

To be fair to them, I can't blame them for that. It would be nearly impossible to spend your entire working life in a system you didn't believe in. Between the two of them, I wager they put in about 85 years into the system.

Regardless, the result was that the abuse I suffered at school, was met with skepticism and dismissed. I was told I was 'being negative' and that I was just misunderstanding the people who harassed and abused me on a routine basis.

This was particularly bad for my poor mother. Again, it's hard to not give her some a fair shake, because after all... she's kept in touch with every single person she went to high school with, even to this day. Now in her mid-70s, she still hasn't missed a high school reunion. I have not spoken with a single person from my school, in 20 years. Now, I don't think I would be able to, since I can't remember a single person's name from my school.

But my mother never understood the extreme wedge that she unintentionally created between us. She complained constantly that I never talked to her, but then.... who ever wants to talk to someone, who never believes anything they say? Why bother talking to a mother who will simply deny your pain, and claim you are just making it up because you are so negative.

It is impossible to calculate the damage public school did. One of the reasons I never wanted, and never will, have children is because I can't stand the idea of putting a child through, what I went through.

Nevertheless, I have a unique and burning hatred for public schools. It's a fire I'll likely carry to my grave. When I argue here against schools, I try and keep it based on the facts, like low education outcomes, and the high cost.

But the reality is, I think nearly ever public school should be burned to the ground with thermite, and then turned into a land fill. Too many students are abused in public schools, and no one does anything about it.

One of the reasons I support private schools, is because in a private school, a student is also a customer. Teachers that abuse kids the way I was abused, would be fired, because they would cause the school to lose money. Public schools couldn't care less. They lose nothing, if you remove your kid from their school. They got your tax money, whether you are happy or not. Same is true of school bullying. Not all, but many private schools have strict rules against bullying, because again, a student that leaves, is bad for business.

Anywho.... terrible experience, I wouldn't wish on anyone, not even those I don't like.

First of all, I believe you, and I'm sorry.

I can excuse teachers being overwhelmed. It's an easily overwhelming job. But I cannot excuse cruelty.

But I hope you realize you do just what your parents do when you want all public schools "burnt to the ground". Perhaps your parents dismissed your experience. It sounds like they certainly did. You're not dismissing a lot of kids' decent, if not good or great, experience by wanting to "burn the schools to the ground". Isn't that exactly what your parents did? Taking YOUR experience and extrapoling it to everyone?

True...... however the cruelty and evil that is inflicted upon the minority of students, for the sake of the majority who enjoy it... is not a good excuse to me.

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind, none whatsoever.... that those students who were cruel, and evil, and abusive to me for over a decade of my life..... likely greatly enjoyed their school experience.

And why would they not.... After all, they had their group of friends that stood up for them. That overlooked their abuse. That defended them no matter what. And teachers that take sides, rather than enforce what is right.

How much different school life must be, when you can chuck rocks and sticks at outcasts, sending them to the hospital, forcing them to wear an eye patch for weeks, and all your friends happily surround you when questioned, and insist you had nothing to do with it.

I was standing by myself minding my own business, when I was hit directly in the eye, rush to a hospital, and for the next few months wearing an eye patch. You ever had a stick or whatever it was, jammed into your eye socket? The laughs.... snickers... and no one owned up to it. An accident. Still don't know who did it. And no one was penalized.

It was laughable the number of "accidents" that happened during my school time. I had the fun experience of doing the 'trust fall'. If you don't know what that is, which a video on it. You just fall backward into people who will catch you. As the name implies, trusting they will catch you. While kids much heavier than me, were caught, and put back on the feet, I found myself laying on the ground, while those standing around snickered and laughed. Another accident.

I never considered myself smart, but even the most stupid of people knows a pattern when you see it.

Great fun for all those people. I'm sure school was an endless euphoric joy, for those happy students. Like you said, I'm sure they had a fantastic time.

But it wasn't just that I had people who enjoyed making me miserable, it was not not one would even stand up for the outcast being abused. Not once in all the years I was in public schools, not even one time, did a teacher or a student, ever stand and say "Hey.... leave him alone". If that had happened one time in my entire life, I wager I would have a different view than I do today.

So whether they directly engaged in abuse, or were merely intentionally overlooking it... all those happy joyful students, and the teachers who did nothing to stop it... are all guilty. All of them.

You don't need to worry about this old man now.... I too old to do anything crazy, and I certainly follow the law. But don't think if they ever made it legal, that I wouldn't be the first to douse that building with all the gasoline I could afford to buy, and then for the first time, really enjoy a school bon fire.

I hear you. We should make a difference but how can we now? One poster said he would not have children for fear of him being treated the same way. He is the ONE that needs to have children so he can listen to them and help them if cruel issues arise.

 

[Jackson]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I got in two fist fights in High School which altered my future.

How did they alter your future?

 

[Pogo]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I absolutely hated school. Hate the people there. Hated the kids. Hated the teachers. I would be hard pressed to come up with anything good about that prison camp.

I was an outcast of outcasts. I didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't particularly athletic. I most certainly wasn't that smart. I wasn't even nerdy enough to be a nerd. Not popular enough, to be with the "in crowd". Not rebellious enough to be the the rebels. With no one to defend me, I was an easy target. And kids love nothing more, than an easy target to pick on, that no one will stand up for. That was me. As a service to the entire schools pride and ego.

And the teachers were no better. Had one of the popular girls, enjoy some fun at my expense in class, until I finally snapped at her, calling her a cow. (which for me, is about a vulgar as I get). The teacher who had been there the entire time, gave me detention, and let her go. Had another time where I was required to give a class presentation, only to get heckled and mocked from a guy in the front of the class. After enduring insult after insult, I looked up to see the teacher just sitting back in his chair smilingly brilliantly at me, as if to say 'well sucks to be you loser'.

That isn't to say it didn't work for some people, I'm sure. I knew of people who enjoyed school, and more power to them.

But it most certainly didn't work for me. Unfortunately, my well intentioned parents, were both public school teachers. Both were firm in their unwavering support of the school system.

To be fair to them, I can't blame them for that. It would be nearly impossible to spend your entire working life in a system you didn't believe in. Between the two of them, I wager they put in about 85 years into the system.

Regardless, the result was that the abuse I suffered at school, was met with skepticism and dismissed. I was told I was 'being negative' and that I was just misunderstanding the people who harassed and abused me on a routine basis.

This was particularly bad for my poor mother. Again, it's hard to not give her some a fair shake, because after all... she's kept in touch with every single person she went to high school with, even to this day. Now in her mid-70s, she still hasn't missed a high school reunion. I have not spoken with a single person from my school, in 20 years. Now, I don't think I would be able to, since I can't remember a single person's name from my school.

But my mother never understood the extreme wedge that she unintentionally created between us. She complained constantly that I never talked to her, but then.... who ever wants to talk to someone, who never believes anything they say? Why bother talking to a mother who will simply deny your pain, and claim you are just making it up because you are so negative.

It is impossible to calculate the damage public school did. One of the reasons I never wanted, and never will, have children is because I can't stand the idea of putting a child through, what I went through.

Nevertheless, I have a unique and burning hatred for public schools. It's a fire I'll likely carry to my grave. When I argue here against schools, I try and keep it based on the facts, like low education outcomes, and the high cost.

But the reality is, I think nearly ever public school should be burned to the ground with thermite, and then turned into a land fill. Too many students are abused in public schools, and no one does anything about it.

One of the reasons I support private schools, is because in a private school, a student is also a customer. Teachers that abuse kids the way I was abused, would be fired, because they would cause the school to lose money. Public schools couldn't care less. They lose nothing, if you remove your kid from their school. They got your tax money, whether you are happy or not. Same is true of school bullying. Not all, but many private schools have strict rules against bullying, because again, a student that leaves, is bad for business.

Anywho.... terrible experience, I wouldn't wish on anyone, not even those I don't like.

First of all, I believe you, and I'm sorry.

I can excuse teachers being overwhelmed. It's an easily overwhelming job. But I cannot excuse cruelty.

But I hope you realize you do just what your parents do when you want all public schools "burnt to the ground". Perhaps your parents dismissed your experience. It sounds like they certainly did. You're not dismissing a lot of kids' decent, if not good or great, experience by wanting to "burn the schools to the ground". Isn't that exactly what your parents did? Taking YOUR experience and extrapoling it to everyone?

True...... however the cruelty and evil that is inflicted upon the minority of students, for the sake of the majority who enjoy it... is not a good excuse to me.

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind, none whatsoever.... that those students who were cruel, and evil, and abusive to me for over a decade of my life..... likely greatly enjoyed their school experience.

And why would they not.... After all, they had their group of friends that stood up for them. That overlooked their abuse. That defended them no matter what. And teachers that take sides, rather than enforce what is right.

How much different school life must be, when you can chuck rocks and sticks at outcasts, sending them to the hospital, forcing them to wear an eye patch for weeks, and all your friends happily surround you when questioned, and insist you had nothing to do with it.

I was standing by myself minding my own business, when I was hit directly in the eye, rush to a hospital, and for the next few months wearing an eye patch. You ever had a stick or whatever it was, jammed into your eye socket? The laughs.... snickers... and no one owned up to it. An accident. Still don't know who did it. And no one was penalized.

It was laughable the number of "accidents" that happened during my school time. I had the fun experience of doing the 'trust fall'. If you don't know what that is, which a video on it. You just fall backward into people who will catch you. As the name implies, trusting they will catch you. While kids much heavier than me, were caught, and put back on the feet, I found myself laying on the ground, while those standing around snickered and laughed. Another accident.

I never considered myself smart, but even the most stupid of people knows a pattern when you see it.

Great fun for all those people. I'm sure school was an endless euphoric joy, for those happy students. Like you said, I'm sure they had a fantastic time.

But it wasn't just that I had people who enjoyed making me miserable, it was not not one would even stand up for the outcast being abused. Not once in all the years I was in public schools, not even one time, did a teacher or a student, ever stand and say "Hey.... leave him alone". If that had happened one time in my entire life, I wager I would have a different view than I do today.

So whether they directly engaged in abuse, or were merely intentionally overlooking it... all those happy joyful students, and the teachers who did nothing to stop it... are all guilty. All of them.

You don't need to worry about this old man now.... I too old to do anything crazy, and I certainly follow the law. But don't think if they ever made it legal, that I wouldn't be the first to douse that building with all the gasoline I could afford to buy, and then for the first time, really enjoy a school bon fire.

I hear you. We should make a difference but how can we now? One poster said he would not have children for fear of him being treated the same way. He is the ONE that needs to have children so he can listen to them and help them if cruel issues arise.

Yeah I said the same thing, out of similar experiences.

I just don't think this 19th century idea of creating a robotic institution where kids barely out of infancy are force-marched in to a cookie-cutter factory, told to stifle their energy, sit down, shut up, switch off their individuality, suppress their creativity, conform, assume the position to sponge up the required indoctrination and judge each other in some vast phony social striation is an idea that has merit. As far as the question of what to do about it, I'd go all the way back to basics. SO much is lost in that poisonous environment.

 

[Jackson]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I absolutely hated school. Hate the people there. Hated the kids. Hated the teachers. I would be hard pressed to come up with anything good about that prison camp.

I was an outcast of outcasts. I didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't particularly athletic. I most certainly wasn't that smart. I wasn't even nerdy enough to be a nerd. Not popular enough, to be with the "in crowd". Not rebellious enough to be the the rebels. With no one to defend me, I was an easy target. And kids love nothing more, than an easy target to pick on, that no one will stand up for. That was me. As a service to the entire schools pride and ego.

And the teachers were no better. Had one of the popular girls, enjoy some fun at my expense in class, until I finally snapped at her, calling her a cow. (which for me, is about a vulgar as I get). The teacher who had been there the entire time, gave me detention, and let her go. Had another time where I was required to give a class presentation, only to get heckled and mocked from a guy in the front of the class. After enduring insult after insult, I looked up to see the teacher just sitting back in his chair smilingly brilliantly at me, as if to say 'well sucks to be you loser'.

That isn't to say it didn't work for some people, I'm sure. I knew of people who enjoyed school, and more power to them.

But it most certainly didn't work for me. Unfortunately, my well intentioned parents, were both public school teachers. Both were firm in their unwavering support of the school system.

To be fair to them, I can't blame them for that. It would be nearly impossible to spend your entire working life in a system you didn't believe in. Between the two of them, I wager they put in about 85 years into the system.

Regardless, the result was that the abuse I suffered at school, was met with skepticism and dismissed. I was told I was 'being negative' and that I was just misunderstanding the people who harassed and abused me on a routine basis.

This was particularly bad for my poor mother. Again, it's hard to not give her some a fair shake, because after all... she's kept in touch with every single person she went to high school with, even to this day. Now in her mid-70s, she still hasn't missed a high school reunion. I have not spoken with a single person from my school, in 20 years. Now, I don't think I would be able to, since I can't remember a single person's name from my school.

But my mother never understood the extreme wedge that she unintentionally created between us. She complained constantly that I never talked to her, but then.... who ever wants to talk to someone, who never believes anything they say? Why bother talking to a mother who will simply deny your pain, and claim you are just making it up because you are so negative.

It is impossible to calculate the damage public school did. One of the reasons I never wanted, and never will, have children is because I can't stand the idea of putting a child through, what I went through.

Nevertheless, I have a unique and burning hatred for public schools. It's a fire I'll likely carry to my grave. When I argue here against schools, I try and keep it based on the facts, like low education outcomes, and the high cost.

But the reality is, I think nearly ever public school should be burned to the ground with thermite, and then turned into a land fill. Too many students are abused in public schools, and no one does anything about it.

One of the reasons I support private schools, is because in a private school, a student is also a customer. Teachers that abuse kids the way I was abused, would be fired, because they would cause the school to lose money. Public schools couldn't care less. They lose nothing, if you remove your kid from their school. They got your tax money, whether you are happy or not. Same is true of school bullying. Not all, but many private schools have strict rules against bullying, because again, a student that leaves, is bad for business.

Anywho.... terrible experience, I wouldn't wish on anyone, not even those I don't like.

First of all, I believe you, and I'm sorry.

I can excuse teachers being overwhelmed. It's an easily overwhelming job. But I cannot excuse cruelty.

But I hope you realize you do just what your parents do when you want all public schools "burnt to the ground". Perhaps your parents dismissed your experience. It sounds like they certainly did. You're not dismissing a lot of kids' decent, if not good or great, experience by wanting to "burn the schools to the ground". Isn't that exactly what your parents did? Taking YOUR experience and extrapoling it to everyone?

True...... however the cruelty and evil that is inflicted upon the minority of students, for the sake of the majority who enjoy it... is not a good excuse to me.

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind, none whatsoever.... that those students who were cruel, and evil, and abusive to me for over a decade of my life..... likely greatly enjoyed their school experience.

And why would they not.... After all, they had their group of friends that stood up for them. That overlooked their abuse. That defended them no matter what. And teachers that take sides, rather than enforce what is right.

How much different school life must be, when you can chuck rocks and sticks at outcasts, sending them to the hospital, forcing them to wear an eye patch for weeks, and all your friends happily surround you when questioned, and insist you had nothing to do with it.

I was standing by myself minding my own business, when I was hit directly in the eye, rush to a hospital, and for the next few months wearing an eye patch. You ever had a stick or whatever it was, jammed into your eye socket? The laughs.... snickers... and no one owned up to it. An accident. Still don't know who did it. And no one was penalized.

It was laughable the number of "accidents" that happened during my school time. I had the fun experience of doing the 'trust fall'. If you don't know what that is, which a video on it. You just fall backward into people who will catch you. As the name implies, trusting they will catch you. While kids much heavier than me, were caught, and put back on the feet, I found myself laying on the ground, while those standing around snickered and laughed. Another accident.

I never considered myself smart, but even the most stupid of people knows a pattern when you see it.

Great fun for all those people. I'm sure school was an endless euphoric joy, for those happy students. Like you said, I'm sure they had a fantastic time.

But it wasn't just that I had people who enjoyed making me miserable, it was not not one would even stand up for the outcast being abused. Not once in all the years I was in public schools, not even one time, did a teacher or a student, ever stand and say "Hey.... leave him alone". If that had happened one time in my entire life, I wager I would have a different view than I do today.

So whether they directly engaged in abuse, or were merely intentionally overlooking it... all those happy joyful students, and the teachers who did nothing to stop it... are all guilty. All of them.

You don't need to worry about this old man now.... I too old to do anything crazy, and I certainly follow the law. But don't think if they ever made it legal, that I wouldn't be the first to douse that building with all the gasoline I could afford to buy, and then for the first time, really enjoy a school bon fire.

I hear you. We should make a difference but how can we now? One poster said he would not have children for fear of him being treated the same way. He is the ONE that needs to have children so he can listen to them and help them if cruel issues arise.

Yeah I said the same thing, out of similar experiences.

I just don't think this 19th century idea of creating a robotic institution where kids barely out of infancy are force-marched in to a cookie-cutter factory, told to stifle their energy, sit down, shut up, switch off their individuality, suppress their creativity, conform, assume the position to sponge up the required indoctrination and judge each other in some vast phony social striation is an idea that has merit. As far as the question of what to do about it, I'd go all the way back to basics. SO much is lost in that poisonous environment.

Can you be more specific in your post?

 

[Pogo]

I absolutely hated school. Hate the people there. Hated the kids. Hated the teachers. I would be hard pressed to come up with anything good about that prison camp.

I was an outcast of outcasts. I didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't particularly athletic. I most certainly wasn't that smart. I wasn't even nerdy enough to be a nerd. Not popular enough, to be with the "in crowd". Not rebellious enough to be the the rebels. With no one to defend me, I was an easy target. And kids love nothing more, than an easy target to pick on, that no one will stand up for. That was me. As a service to the entire schools pride and ego.

And the teachers were no better. Had one of the popular girls, enjoy some fun at my expense in class, until I finally snapped at her, calling her a cow. (which for me, is about a vulgar as I get). The teacher who had been there the entire time, gave me detention, and let her go. Had another time where I was required to give a class presentation, only to get heckled and mocked from a guy in the front of the class. After enduring insult after insult, I looked up to see the teacher just sitting back in his chair smilingly brilliantly at me, as if to say 'well sucks to be you loser'.

That isn't to say it didn't work for some people, I'm sure. I knew of people who enjoyed school, and more power to them.

But it most certainly didn't work for me. Unfortunately, my well intentioned parents, were both public school teachers. Both were firm in their unwavering support of the school system.

To be fair to them, I can't blame them for that. It would be nearly impossible to spend your entire working life in a system you didn't believe in. Between the two of them, I wager they put in about 85 years into the system.

Regardless, the result was that the abuse I suffered at school, was met with skepticism and dismissed. I was told I was 'being negative' and that I was just misunderstanding the people who harassed and abused me on a routine basis.

This was particularly bad for my poor mother. Again, it's hard to not give her some a fair shake, because after all... she's kept in touch with every single person she went to high school with, even to this day. Now in her mid-70s, she still hasn't missed a high school reunion. I have not spoken with a single person from my school, in 20 years. Now, I don't think I would be able to, since I can't remember a single person's name from my school.

But my mother never understood the extreme wedge that she unintentionally created between us. She complained constantly that I never talked to her, but then.... who ever wants to talk to someone, who never believes anything they say? Why bother talking to a mother who will simply deny your pain, and claim you are just making it up because you are so negative.

It is impossible to calculate the damage public school did. One of the reasons I never wanted, and never will, have children is because I can't stand the idea of putting a child through, what I went through.

Nevertheless, I have a unique and burning hatred for public schools. It's a fire I'll likely carry to my grave. When I argue here against schools, I try and keep it based on the facts, like low education outcomes, and the high cost.

But the reality is, I think nearly ever public school should be burned to the ground with thermite, and then turned into a land fill. Too many students are abused in public schools, and no one does anything about it.

One of the reasons I support private schools, is because in a private school, a student is also a customer. Teachers that abuse kids the way I was abused, would be fired, because they would cause the school to lose money. Public schools couldn't care less. They lose nothing, if you remove your kid from their school. They got your tax money, whether you are happy or not. Same is true of school bullying. Not all, but many private schools have strict rules against bullying, because again, a student that leaves, is bad for business.

Anywho.... terrible experience, I wouldn't wish on anyone, not even those I don't like.

First of all, I believe you, and I'm sorry.

I can excuse teachers being overwhelmed. It's an easily overwhelming job. But I cannot excuse cruelty.

But I hope you realize you do just what your parents do when you want all public schools "burnt to the ground". Perhaps your parents dismissed your experience. It sounds like they certainly did. You're not dismissing a lot of kids' decent, if not good or great, experience by wanting to "burn the schools to the ground". Isn't that exactly what your parents did? Taking YOUR experience and extrapoling it to everyone?

True...... however the cruelty and evil that is inflicted upon the minority of students, for the sake of the majority who enjoy it... is not a good excuse to me.

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind, none whatsoever.... that those students who were cruel, and evil, and abusive to me for over a decade of my life..... likely greatly enjoyed their school experience.

And why would they not.... After all, they had their group of friends that stood up for them. That overlooked their abuse. That defended them no matter what. And teachers that take sides, rather than enforce what is right.

How much different school life must be, when you can chuck rocks and sticks at outcasts, sending them to the hospital, forcing them to wear an eye patch for weeks, and all your friends happily surround you when questioned, and insist you had nothing to do with it.

I was standing by myself minding my own business, when I was hit directly in the eye, rush to a hospital, and for the next few months wearing an eye patch. You ever had a stick or whatever it was, jammed into your eye socket? The laughs.... snickers... and no one owned up to it. An accident. Still don't know who did it. And no one was penalized.

It was laughable the number of "accidents" that happened during my school time. I had the fun experience of doing the 'trust fall'. If you don't know what that is, which a video on it. You just fall backward into people who will catch you. As the name implies, trusting they will catch you. While kids much heavier than me, were caught, and put back on the feet, I found myself laying on the ground, while those standing around snickered and laughed. Another accident.

I never considered myself smart, but even the most stupid of people knows a pattern when you see it.

Great fun for all those people. I'm sure school was an endless euphoric joy, for those happy students. Like you said, I'm sure they had a fantastic time.

But it wasn't just that I had people who enjoyed making me miserable, it was not not one would even stand up for the outcast being abused. Not once in all the years I was in public schools, not even one time, did a teacher or a student, ever stand and say "Hey.... leave him alone". If that had happened one time in my entire life, I wager I would have a different view than I do today.

So whether they directly engaged in abuse, or were merely intentionally overlooking it... all those happy joyful students, and the teachers who did nothing to stop it... are all guilty. All of them.

You don't need to worry about this old man now.... I too old to do anything crazy, and I certainly follow the law. But don't think if they ever made it legal, that I wouldn't be the first to douse that building with all the gasoline I could afford to buy, and then for the first time, really enjoy a school bon fire.

I hear you. We should make a difference but how can we now? One poster said he would not have children for fear of him being treated the same way. He is the ONE that needs to have children so he can listen to them and help them if cruel issues arise.

Yeah I said the same thing, out of similar experiences.

I just don't think this 19th century idea of creating a robotic institution where kids barely out of infancy are force-marched in to a cookie-cutter factory, told to stifle their energy, sit down, shut up, switch off their individuality, suppress their creativity, conform, assume the position to sponge up the required indoctrination and judge each other in some vast phony social striation is an idea that has merit. As far as the question of what to do about it, I'd go all the way back to basics. SO much is lost in that poisonous environment.

Can you be more specific in your post?

More specific about what?

This is kind of an expansion of what I said more succinctly in post 2.

 

[Unkotare]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I absolutely hated school. Hate the people there. Hated the kids. Hated the teachers. I would be hard pressed to come up with anything good about that prison camp.

I was an outcast of outcasts. I didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't particularly athletic. I most certainly wasn't that smart. I wasn't even nerdy enough to be a nerd. Not popular enough, to be with the "in crowd". Not rebellious enough to be the the rebels. With no one to defend me, I was an easy target. And kids love nothing more, than an easy target to pick on, that no one will stand up for. That was me. As a service to the entire schools pride and ego.

And the teachers were no better. Had one of the popular girls, enjoy some fun at my expense in class, until I finally snapped at her, calling her a cow. (which for me, is about a vulgar as I get). The teacher who had been there the entire time, gave me detention, and let her go. Had another time where I was required to give a class presentation, only to get heckled and mocked from a guy in the front of the class. After enduring insult after insult, I looked up to see the teacher just sitting back in his chair smilingly brilliantly at me, as if to say 'well sucks to be you loser'.

That isn't to say it didn't work for some people, I'm sure. I knew of people who enjoyed school, and more power to them.

But it most certainly didn't work for me. Unfortunately, my well intentioned parents, were both public school teachers. Both were firm in their unwavering support of the school system.

To be fair to them, I can't blame them for that. It would be nearly impossible to spend your entire working life in a system you didn't believe in. Between the two of them, I wager they put in about 85 years into the system.

Regardless, the result was that the abuse I suffered at school, was met with skepticism and dismissed. I was told I was 'being negative' and that I was just misunderstanding the people who harassed and abused me on a routine basis.

This was particularly bad for my poor mother. Again, it's hard to not give her some a fair shake, because after all... she's kept in touch with every single person she went to high school with, even to this day. Now in her mid-70s, she still hasn't missed a high school reunion. I have not spoken with a single person from my school, in 20 years. Now, I don't think I would be able to, since I can't remember a single person's name from my school.

But my mother never understood the extreme wedge that she unintentionally created between us. She complained constantly that I never talked to her, but then.... who ever wants to talk to someone, who never believes anything they say? Why bother talking to a mother who will simply deny your pain, and claim you are just making it up because you are so negative.

It is impossible to calculate the damage public school did. One of the reasons I never wanted, and never will, have children is because I can't stand the idea of putting a child through, what I went through.

Nevertheless, I have a unique and burning hatred for public schools. It's a fire I'll likely carry to my grave. When I argue here against schools, I try and keep it based on the facts, like low education outcomes, and the high cost.

But the reality is, I think nearly ever public school should be burned to the ground with thermite, and then turned into a land fill. Too many students are abused in public schools, and no one does anything about it.

One of the reasons I support private schools, is because in a private school, a student is also a customer. Teachers that abuse kids the way I was abused, would be fired, because they would cause the school to lose money. Public schools couldn't care less. They lose nothing, if you remove your kid from their school. They got your tax money, whether you are happy or not. Same is true of school bullying. Not all, but many private schools have strict rules against bullying, because again, a student that leaves, is bad for business.

Anywho.... terrible experience, I wouldn't wish on anyone, not even those I don't like.

SO similar to my own sentiments. I remember travelling back to the old neighborhood after decades living elsewhere, seeing how everything had been developed, new roads, new buildings, everything different except The Prison. Which is what I always called it. It looked exactly the same. Although there was no reason to expect it I felt a deep disappointment that it hadn't been obliterated by a meteor. But if one could plan that I would happily sit across the street and watch it burn, munching popcorn, applauding and saying, "good riddance". And then I'd spit on it.

I've gotten regular invitations to high school reunions over the years including number 50 recently. Never went to a single one, never wanted to. Fuck 'em.

Another loser who blames the world for the fact that you live in it. Talk about arrested development.

Sounds like you just may be one of those witchy teachers who have their favorites and delight in making life miserable for those considered outcasts.

Why?

 

[Andylusion]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I absolutely hated school. Hate the people there. Hated the kids. Hated the teachers. I would be hard pressed to come up with anything good about that prison camp.

I was an outcast of outcasts. I didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't particularly athletic. I most certainly wasn't that smart. I wasn't even nerdy enough to be a nerd. Not popular enough, to be with the "in crowd". Not rebellious enough to be the the rebels. With no one to defend me, I was an easy target. And kids love nothing more, than an easy target to pick on, that no one will stand up for. That was me. As a service to the entire schools pride and ego.

And the teachers were no better. Had one of the popular girls, enjoy some fun at my expense in class, until I finally snapped at her, calling her a cow. (which for me, is about a vulgar as I get). The teacher who had been there the entire time, gave me detention, and let her go. Had another time where I was required to give a class presentation, only to get heckled and mocked from a guy in the front of the class. After enduring insult after insult, I looked up to see the teacher just sitting back in his chair smilingly brilliantly at me, as if to say 'well sucks to be you loser'.

That isn't to say it didn't work for some people, I'm sure. I knew of people who enjoyed school, and more power to them.

But it most certainly didn't work for me. Unfortunately, my well intentioned parents, were both public school teachers. Both were firm in their unwavering support of the school system.

To be fair to them, I can't blame them for that. It would be nearly impossible to spend your entire working life in a system you didn't believe in. Between the two of them, I wager they put in about 85 years into the system.

Regardless, the result was that the abuse I suffered at school, was met with skepticism and dismissed. I was told I was 'being negative' and that I was just misunderstanding the people who harassed and abused me on a routine basis.

This was particularly bad for my poor mother. Again, it's hard to not give her some a fair shake, because after all... she's kept in touch with every single person she went to high school with, even to this day. Now in her mid-70s, she still hasn't missed a high school reunion. I have not spoken with a single person from my school, in 20 years. Now, I don't think I would be able to, since I can't remember a single person's name from my school.

But my mother never understood the extreme wedge that she unintentionally created between us. She complained constantly that I never talked to her, but then.... who ever wants to talk to someone, who never believes anything they say? Why bother talking to a mother who will simply deny your pain, and claim you are just making it up because you are so negative.

It is impossible to calculate the damage public school did. One of the reasons I never wanted, and never will, have children is because I can't stand the idea of putting a child through, what I went through.

Nevertheless, I have a unique and burning hatred for public schools. It's a fire I'll likely carry to my grave. When I argue here against schools, I try and keep it based on the facts, like low education outcomes, and the high cost.

But the reality is, I think nearly ever public school should be burned to the ground with thermite, and then turned into a land fill. Too many students are abused in public schools, and no one does anything about it.

One of the reasons I support private schools, is because in a private school, a student is also a customer. Teachers that abuse kids the way I was abused, would be fired, because they would cause the school to lose money. Public schools couldn't care less. They lose nothing, if you remove your kid from their school. They got your tax money, whether you are happy or not. Same is true of school bullying. Not all, but many private schools have strict rules against bullying, because again, a student that leaves, is bad for business.

Anywho.... terrible experience, I wouldn't wish on anyone, not even those I don't like.

First of all, I believe you, and I'm sorry.

I can excuse teachers being overwhelmed. It's an easily overwhelming job. But I cannot excuse cruelty.

But I hope you realize you do just what your parents do when you want all public schools "burnt to the ground". Perhaps your parents dismissed your experience. It sounds like they certainly did. You're not dismissing a lot of kids' decent, if not good or great, experience by wanting to "burn the schools to the ground". Isn't that exactly what your parents did? Taking YOUR experience and extrapoling it to everyone?

True...... however the cruelty and evil that is inflicted upon the minority of students, for the sake of the majority who enjoy it... is not a good excuse to me.

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind, none whatsoever.... that those students who were cruel, and evil, and abusive to me for over a decade of my life..... likely greatly enjoyed their school experience.

And why would they not.... After all, they had their group of friends that stood up for them. That overlooked their abuse. That defended them no matter what. And teachers that take sides, rather than enforce what is right.

How much different school life must be, when you can chuck rocks and sticks at outcasts, sending them to the hospital, forcing them to wear an eye patch for weeks, and all your friends happily surround you when questioned, and insist you had nothing to do with it.

I was standing by myself minding my own business, when I was hit directly in the eye, rush to a hospital, and for the next few months wearing an eye patch. You ever had a stick or whatever it was, jammed into your eye socket? The laughs.... snickers... and no one owned up to it. An accident. Still don't know who did it. And no one was penalized.

It was laughable the number of "accidents" that happened during my school time. I had the fun experience of doing the 'trust fall'. If you don't know what that is, which a video on it. You just fall backward into people who will catch you. As the name implies, trusting they will catch you. While kids much heavier than me, were caught, and put back on the feet, I found myself laying on the ground, while those standing around snickered and laughed. Another accident.

I never considered myself smart, but even the most stupid of people knows a pattern when you see it.

Great fun for all those people. I'm sure school was an endless euphoric joy, for those happy students. Like you said, I'm sure they had a fantastic time.

But it wasn't just that I had people who enjoyed making me miserable, it was not not one would even stand up for the outcast being abused. Not once in all the years I was in public schools, not even one time, did a teacher or a student, ever stand and say "Hey.... leave him alone". If that had happened one time in my entire life, I wager I would have a different view than I do today.

So whether they directly engaged in abuse, or were merely intentionally overlooking it... all those happy joyful students, and the teachers who did nothing to stop it... are all guilty. All of them.

You don't need to worry about this old man now.... I too old to do anything crazy, and I certainly follow the law. But don't think if they ever made it legal, that I wouldn't be the first to douse that building with all the gasoline I could afford to buy, and then for the first time, really enjoy a school bon fire.

Here's the thing about forgiveness though. It doesn't do a darn thing for the jerks and cowards you went to school with, especially if you don't have any more contact with them. But it frees you from this bitterness. And you have a lot of bitterness about this for a grown man. That's not good for you.

Right, I'm not seeking revenge on those who are abusive. I'm seeking to end on going abuse. From everything I've seen, things are worse today for the abused students, than it was when I was in school.

You don't think so?

I don't remember anyone committing suicide from school bullying. Yet I've seen several stories about that in recent years. Do you think I'm wrong on that assumption?

 

[SweetSue92]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I absolutely hated school. Hate the people there. Hated the kids. Hated the teachers. I would be hard pressed to come up with anything good about that prison camp.

I was an outcast of outcasts. I didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't particularly athletic. I most certainly wasn't that smart. I wasn't even nerdy enough to be a nerd. Not popular enough, to be with the "in crowd". Not rebellious enough to be the the rebels. With no one to defend me, I was an easy target. And kids love nothing more, than an easy target to pick on, that no one will stand up for. That was me. As a service to the entire schools pride and ego.

And the teachers were no better. Had one of the popular girls, enjoy some fun at my expense in class, until I finally snapped at her, calling her a cow. (which for me, is about a vulgar as I get). The teacher who had been there the entire time, gave me detention, and let her go. Had another time where I was required to give a class presentation, only to get heckled and mocked from a guy in the front of the class. After enduring insult after insult, I looked up to see the teacher just sitting back in his chair smilingly brilliantly at me, as if to say 'well sucks to be you loser'.

That isn't to say it didn't work for some people, I'm sure. I knew of people who enjoyed school, and more power to them.

But it most certainly didn't work for me. Unfortunately, my well intentioned parents, were both public school teachers. Both were firm in their unwavering support of the school system.

To be fair to them, I can't blame them for that. It would be nearly impossible to spend your entire working life in a system you didn't believe in. Between the two of them, I wager they put in about 85 years into the system.

Regardless, the result was that the abuse I suffered at school, was met with skepticism and dismissed. I was told I was 'being negative' and that I was just misunderstanding the people who harassed and abused me on a routine basis.

This was particularly bad for my poor mother. Again, it's hard to not give her some a fair shake, because after all... she's kept in touch with every single person she went to high school with, even to this day. Now in her mid-70s, she still hasn't missed a high school reunion. I have not spoken with a single person from my school, in 20 years. Now, I don't think I would be able to, since I can't remember a single person's name from my school.

But my mother never understood the extreme wedge that she unintentionally created between us. She complained constantly that I never talked to her, but then.... who ever wants to talk to someone, who never believes anything they say? Why bother talking to a mother who will simply deny your pain, and claim you are just making it up because you are so negative.

It is impossible to calculate the damage public school did. One of the reasons I never wanted, and never will, have children is because I can't stand the idea of putting a child through, what I went through.

Nevertheless, I have a unique and burning hatred for public schools. It's a fire I'll likely carry to my grave. When I argue here against schools, I try and keep it based on the facts, like low education outcomes, and the high cost.

But the reality is, I think nearly ever public school should be burned to the ground with thermite, and then turned into a land fill. Too many students are abused in public schools, and no one does anything about it.

One of the reasons I support private schools, is because in a private school, a student is also a customer. Teachers that abuse kids the way I was abused, would be fired, because they would cause the school to lose money. Public schools couldn't care less. They lose nothing, if you remove your kid from their school. They got your tax money, whether you are happy or not. Same is true of school bullying. Not all, but many private schools have strict rules against bullying, because again, a student that leaves, is bad for business.

Anywho.... terrible experience, I wouldn't wish on anyone, not even those I don't like.

First of all, I believe you, and I'm sorry.

I can excuse teachers being overwhelmed. It's an easily overwhelming job. But I cannot excuse cruelty.

But I hope you realize you do just what your parents do when you want all public schools "burnt to the ground". Perhaps your parents dismissed your experience. It sounds like they certainly did. You're not dismissing a lot of kids' decent, if not good or great, experience by wanting to "burn the schools to the ground". Isn't that exactly what your parents did? Taking YOUR experience and extrapoling it to everyone?

True...... however the cruelty and evil that is inflicted upon the minority of students, for the sake of the majority who enjoy it... is not a good excuse to me.

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind, none whatsoever.... that those students who were cruel, and evil, and abusive to me for over a decade of my life..... likely greatly enjoyed their school experience.

And why would they not.... After all, they had their group of friends that stood up for them. That overlooked their abuse. That defended them no matter what. And teachers that take sides, rather than enforce what is right.

How much different school life must be, when you can chuck rocks and sticks at outcasts, sending them to the hospital, forcing them to wear an eye patch for weeks, and all your friends happily surround you when questioned, and insist you had nothing to do with it.

I was standing by myself minding my own business, when I was hit directly in the eye, rush to a hospital, and for the next few months wearing an eye patch. You ever had a stick or whatever it was, jammed into your eye socket? The laughs.... snickers... and no one owned up to it. An accident. Still don't know who did it. And no one was penalized.

It was laughable the number of "accidents" that happened during my school time. I had the fun experience of doing the 'trust fall'. If you don't know what that is, which a video on it. You just fall backward into people who will catch you. As the name implies, trusting they will catch you. While kids much heavier than me, were caught, and put back on the feet, I found myself laying on the ground, while those standing around snickered and laughed. Another accident.

I never considered myself smart, but even the most stupid of people knows a pattern when you see it.

Great fun for all those people. I'm sure school was an endless euphoric joy, for those happy students. Like you said, I'm sure they had a fantastic time.

But it wasn't just that I had people who enjoyed making me miserable, it was not not one would even stand up for the outcast being abused. Not once in all the years I was in public schools, not even one time, did a teacher or a student, ever stand and say "Hey.... leave him alone". If that had happened one time in my entire life, I wager I would have a different view than I do today.

So whether they directly engaged in abuse, or were merely intentionally overlooking it... all those happy joyful students, and the teachers who did nothing to stop it... are all guilty. All of them.

You don't need to worry about this old man now.... I too old to do anything crazy, and I certainly follow the law. But don't think if they ever made it legal, that I wouldn't be the first to douse that building with all the gasoline I could afford to buy, and then for the first time, really enjoy a school bon fire.

Here's the thing about forgiveness though. It doesn't do a darn thing for the jerks and cowards you went to school with, especially if you don't have any more contact with them. But it frees you from this bitterness. And you have a lot of bitterness about this for a grown man. That's not good for you.

Right, I'm not seeking revenge on those who are abusive. I'm seeking to end on going abuse. From everything I've seen, things are worse today for the abused students, than it was when I was in school.

You don't think so?

I don't remember anyone committing suicide from school bullying. Yet I've seen several stories about that in recent years. Do you think I'm wrong on that assumption?

There is a lot more awareness on bullying and its horrible effects. That's a positive. however, for whatever reason, there's a lot more suicide, yes. I don't think that's a straight line from bullying though. I think it has at least some of its genesis in the other mysterious uptick in brain disorders going on: autism, bipolar, etc.

 

[Unkotare]

I used to love math. I loved Algebra and Geometry so Algebra 2 should have been a breeze, But the teacher I had was a witch. The only kids she was nice to were athletes and cheerlearders. I was very shy and she saw I had a problem wrong so she told me to go up to the board and do the problem for the rest of the class. Right at the start she began yelling at me and I panicked. I couldn't tell her my name if she asked. I just froze and the louder she got.

Stopped all math at that point. No calc, no trig...no dream of becoming an astronomer.

the next week, I was chewing gum and had to put it on my nose for the rest of the class. Hated that woman.

I absolutely hated school. Hate the people there. Hated the kids. Hated the teachers. I would be hard pressed to come up with anything good about that prison camp.

I was an outcast of outcasts. I didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't particularly athletic. I most certainly wasn't that smart. I wasn't even nerdy enough to be a nerd. Not popular enough, to be with the "in crowd". Not rebellious enough to be the the rebels. With no one to defend me, I was an easy target. And kids love nothing more, than an easy target to pick on, that no one will stand up for. That was me. As a service to the entire schools pride and ego.

And the teachers were no better. Had one of the popular girls, enjoy some fun at my expense in class, until I finally snapped at her, calling her a cow. (which for me, is about a vulgar as I get). The teacher who had been there the entire time, gave me detention, and let her go. Had another time where I was required to give a class presentation, only to get heckled and mocked from a guy in the front of the class. After enduring insult after insult, I looked up to see the teacher just sitting back in his chair smilingly brilliantly at me, as if to say 'well sucks to be you loser'.

That isn't to say it didn't work for some people, I'm sure. I knew of people who enjoyed school, and more power to them.

But it most certainly didn't work for me. Unfortunately, my well intentioned parents, were both public school teachers. Both were firm in their unwavering support of the school system.

To be fair to them, I can't blame them for that. It would be nearly impossible to spend your entire working life in a system you didn't believe in. Between the two of them, I wager they put in about 85 years into the system.

Regardless, the result was that the abuse I suffered at school, was met with skepticism and dismissed. I was told I was 'being negative' and that I was just misunderstanding the people who harassed and abused me on a routine basis.

This was particularly bad for my poor mother. Again, it's hard to not give her some a fair shake, because after all... she's kept in touch with every single person she went to high school with, even to this day. Now in her mid-70s, she still hasn't missed a high school reunion. I have not spoken with a single person from my school, in 20 years. Now, I don't think I would be able to, since I can't remember a single person's name from my school.

But my mother never understood the extreme wedge that she unintentionally created between us. She complained constantly that I never talked to her, but then.... who ever wants to talk to someone, who never believes anything they say? Why bother talking to a mother who will simply deny your pain, and claim you are just making it up because you are so negative.

It is impossible to calculate the damage public school did. One of the reasons I never wanted, and never will, have children is because I can't stand the idea of putting a child through, what I went through.

Nevertheless, I have a unique and burning hatred for public schools. It's a fire I'll likely carry to my grave. When I argue here against schools, I try and keep it based on the facts, like low education outcomes, and the high cost.

But the reality is, I think nearly ever public school should be burned to the ground with thermite, and then turned into a land fill. Too many students are abused in public schools, and no one does anything about it.

One of the reasons I support private schools, is because in a private school, a student is also a customer. Teachers that abuse kids the way I was abused, would be fired, because they would cause the school to lose money. Public schools couldn't care less. They lose nothing, if you remove your kid from their school. They got your tax money, whether you are happy or not. Same is true of school bullying. Not all, but many private schools have strict rules against bullying, because again, a student that leaves, is bad for business.

Anywho.... terrible experience, I wouldn't wish on anyone, not even those I don't like.

First of all, I believe you, and I'm sorry.

I can excuse teachers being overwhelmed. It's an easily overwhelming job. But I cannot excuse cruelty.

But I hope you realize you do just what your parents do when you want all public schools "burnt to the ground". Perhaps your parents dismissed your experience. It sounds like they certainly did. You're not dismissing a lot of kids' decent, if not good or great, experience by wanting to "burn the schools to the ground". Isn't that exactly what your parents did? Taking YOUR experience and extrapoling it to everyone?

True...... however the cruelty and evil that is inflicted upon the minority of students, for the sake of the majority who enjoy it... is not a good excuse to me.

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind, none whatsoever.... that those students who were cruel, and evil, and abusive to me for over a decade of my life..... likely greatly enjoyed their school experience.

And why would they not.... After all, they had their group of friends that stood up for them. That overlooked their abuse. That defended them no matter what. And teachers that take sides, rather than enforce what is right.

How much different school life must be, when you can chuck rocks and sticks at outcasts, sending them to the hospital, forcing them to wear an eye patch for weeks, and all your friends happily surround you when questioned, and insist you had nothing to do with it.

I was standing by myself minding my own business, when I was hit directly in the eye, rush to a hospital, and for the next few months wearing an eye patch. You ever had a stick or whatever it was, jammed into your eye socket? The laughs.... snickers... and no one owned up to it. An accident. Still don't know who did it. And no one was penalized.

It was laughable the number of "accidents" that happened during my school time. I had the fun experience of doing the 'trust fall'. If you don't know what that is, which a video on it. You just fall backward into people who will catch you. As the name implies, trusting they will catch you. While kids much heavier than me, were caught, and put back on the feet, I found myself laying on the ground, while those standing around snickered and laughed. Another accident.

I never considered myself smart, but even the most stupid of people knows a pattern when you see it.

Great fun for all those people. I'm sure school was an endless euphoric joy, for those happy students. Like you said, I'm sure they had a fantastic time.

But it wasn't just that I had people who enjoyed making me miserable, it was not not one would even stand up for the outcast being abused. Not once in all the years I was in public schools, not even one time, did a teacher or a student, ever stand and say "Hey.... leave him alone". If that had happened one time in my entire life, I wager I would have a different view than I do today.

So whether they directly engaged in abuse, or were merely intentionally overlooking it... all those happy joyful students, and the teachers who did nothing to stop it... are all guilty. All of them.

You don't need to worry about this old man now.... I too old to do anything crazy, and I certainly follow the law. But don't think if they ever made it legal, that I wouldn't be the first to douse that building with all the gasoline I could afford to buy, and then for the first time, really enjoy a school bon fire.

Here's the thing about forgiveness though. It doesn't do a darn thing for the jerks and cowards you went to school with, especially if you don't have any more contact with them. But it frees you from this bitterness. And you have a lot of bitterness about this for a grown man. That's not good for you.

Right, I'm not seeking revenge on those who are abusive. I'm seeking to end on going abuse. From everything I've seen, things are worse today for the abused students, than it was when I was in school.

You don't think so?

I don't remember anyone committing suicide from school bullying. Yet I've seen several stories about that in recent years. Do you think I'm wrong on that assumption?

Unfortunately, young people have committed suicide since the beginning. Social media hasn't helped, but it's not new. Kids are encouraged to talk more openly about such feelings now than in the past and more services are available, so that's hopeful.