What School do you go to

Lol, maybe where you went to school. Everyone I went to school with definitely cared about grades but also liked to let loose.

I never experienced university, I just went to a mixed Comprehensive school and College. It's just everyone I know who went to University was focused on getting the best grades possible and didn't want any distractions, they'd basically live at the university and just study, even at weekends.

The school I went to was basically a joke, too many kids, too many bullies. I must admit I did have a good laugh there and made lifelong friends who I still keep in contact with so it wasn't all bad.

The school had five floors, all of which looked exactly the same, 100 rooms on each floor over 500 rooms. I found out recently that the school has since been demolished and in its place they have built three different schools.

I also found out recently the school had the same design as the Maze (H-Block) which was a prison in Northern Ireland that was used to house paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from mid-1971 to mid-2000. Now I know why the place had such a depressing and cold feeling to it.

In Australia we have primary school (Kindergarten to Year 7 or age 4 to 12) and high school (Year 8 to Year 12 or age 13 to 17).

My primary school was pretty average compared to the others that my high school friends went to. Basic 'public school' (however made us sing the lord's prayer at assemblies?), ok teachers, mediocre/bad classmates (some good, but few), occasional bullying in years 2, 5, 6 & 7. Did a lot of damage to my self-esteem. Was always bad at sports and didn't enjoy them at all. The teacher made no effort to help the kids who weren't good.

My high school was also a public school. In Australia public schools have a stigma attached to them & lots of people send their kids to private schools for that reason. But my high school was great. Good teachers, mainly good classmates, never bullied once, actually had classmates and teachers encourage me in sport class. High school was so much better. That was when I realised truly how bad primary school was for me. It's no surprise that I stay in contact with zero primary school friends & several high school friends (graduated in 2017).

The biggest thing for me was sports. I hated most sports in primary school. But in high school I actually enjoyed most of them. In primary school I would be one of the ones standing at the back trying my best not to participate, but in high school I'd get involved. When we played NFL in Year 10 I even nominated myself to be the running back & made a 15-yard gain (before being spear-tackled on the next play for a huge loss xD). But sports became an elective for non-university pathway students to do in upper-school, so that was the end of sport. It's no surprise that I'm doing tennis at the moment.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jul 5th 2022 »

It's heart breaking when you hear of good people you know telling you they were bullied. I remember when my son was too scared to go to school because he was being bullied, he was suffering anxiety over it.

I went to the school twice and complained. They said they would keep an eye on him but the bullying continued. I was even contemplating approaching the father of the kid and telling him to put an end to it found out the boy didn't have a father, he walked out on the family when the bully was very young. What did happen was I enrolled my son into Brazillian Ju-Jitsu lessons where he was taught all these wonderful technique and I would spend hours on a Saturday or Sunday morning teaching him how to box.

When Covid hit my wife and I changed the Ju-Jitsu to boxing because you are nit si close to your opponent. Turn out the bully went to the boxing gym and told my son if he turned up he would 'rip his face off'.

I told my son I would take him to the boxing club and pick him up and the kid would do nothing. On the day we turned up at the club and so did the bully. I even made a point of smiling at him as he walked past us. Inside I couldn't wait for the class to finish, I knew exactly what was going to happen. The bully was going to take one look at my son on the pads and want nothing more to do with him.

That's exactly what happened, the bully offered my son his skipping rope to use because he didn't have one and he never turned up at the club again. At the end of the school term he moved to a other school. My son was delighted, his prayers had been answered.

« Last edited by Sanzano on Jul 7th 2022 »

That's a great story. Your son is very lucky to have you Dennis.

Thanks Matt,I try my best.