School - Did You Enjoy or Despise It?

cj maxx

I for one will always respect my father for the stance he took with the headmaster of my national school. I always found classes quiet easy but had a rebellious nature. When I wouldn't bow down for the sadistic basterd he visited the house threatening to expel me. Daddy, after I explained that I wouldn't allow my self to be caned for something I didn't do, merely backed me and said if expelled he send me to another local school.

freshpopcorn

@JupiterKid Just to clarify at college I didn't struggle at college life, had friends, etc

However my class essentially had a nice few Mean Girls in it.(Easiest way to put it) It was nothing to do with being out of a school environment, not knowing anybody/etc.

Strumms

Loved primary… had a cast of brilliant teachers aside from one …. … an utterly grim horrible individual and very bad teacher…. Looking back psychologically she might not have been in great shape as the smallest thing would set her off… if you pissed her off at 10.00, caught talking, got a load of homework wrong or whatever you were in the bad books… for the whole day… a psycho weirdo basically…zero fun. Only early ‘30s but an ignorant tramp…a load of deadly footballers and runners but she’d only allow us play basketball in PE…

was a very good school though that put a great emphasis on sport, social development and enabling early life skills…as much as educational learning…loved stuff like the fortnightly nature walk through adjoining college grounds, sports days… two per year, lots of field trips etc…

Secondary mixed bag…junior cert was grand, enjoyed it….only teacher I didn’t like was the Irish teacher.. she was an ok girl just qualified but just not any good, reading reviews on her, seems not much changed … leaving cert not so much… got lumbered with a few jock style dopey transition years who were put into our class who turned into a bit of a cancer in the class… the quality of teachers was not as high to say the least…especially the form teacher was piss poor…my Irish a subject I was great at suffered under his ‘teaching’… lad for physics was like a ghoul out of a horror film….

SamStonesArm

I thought it was alright. Wasn't really in secondary that often but it seemed grand.

Mundo7976

Hated primary due to how I was treated, both teachers & classmates.

Ended up being the only one from my class going to the secondary school that I did.

Loved secondary & did ok but couldn't wait to get out of it, became bogged down with a few things but I now realise the worst thing was my parents didn't guide me they way they should have.

My one reprise is that I can try and make sure my kids are better supported!

AllForIt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118586805#Comment_118586805

To be quite honest with you JK, I think you're talking utter crap.

I'm not sure what your're expecting to get out of this thread, but you don't seem to understand the reality of life. Neither do weirdo leftists.

I don't mean to insult you, and I quite like you here, but this thread is ridiculous, and I fell for it myself which is why I deleted my earlier post.

You are bringing n here loads of personal experiences, other ppl's experiences, and I don't know what for.

You are making a huge deal about things that many people experience (edit, that they can get over). And to be quite frank with you, I think you're being a drama queen.

gammygils

Absolutely fcukin HATED it! Every day of it, I went to school in the 70's and 80's when corporal punishment was still in place so getting my hair pulled and getting slapped across the face and getting beaten with a stick for fcuk all was the norm. I used to go into school brickin it in case my homework was wrong or I couldn't recite my poetry or didn't know my fcukin Catechism would get bet around the head and "kept in" at lunchtime. That was National School.

Secondary school wasn't much better, getting "6 of the best" with a leather strap because I didn't know my Latin or Irish poetry and getting put up against a wall and bet around the head for not walking on the right hand side of the corridor (that was the rule) Christian Brothers School btw

Is it any wonder I'm so screwed up?

JupiterKid

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118589183#Comment_118589183

Hmmm...I’m being the drama queen here. Right... 🤨😏

What is the problem with a thread on posters’ school experiences? Some of us had very significant and life changing experiences in our school days. Everything I posted up is true.

Why is it offensive to you? Why do you think I have some sort of ulterior motive? That’s some projecting right there.

Lester_Burnham

Like most well adjusted people I haven't thought much about school since I left.

Gremlinertia

Had a rough time at both schools, a nun would frequently wallop poorer students in primary, secondary was bullying, i did myself no favours though, i was odd, not very socially exposed so didn't 'get' other kids my age. Looking back there's potentially some of my issues with depression surfacing in school so i was mostly a loner so singled out. So yeah, a mostly joyless exercise except that i loved english, history and art.

ThePentagon

My memories of primary school are quite positive. I went to an all-boys school from 2nd class to 6th class and the main things I remember are that I enjoyed most of the subjects we were taught (apart from bloody Irish) and that we played soccer at every sos and lunch break. I was a quiet kid but I don't recall being on the end of any persistent bullying - probably because I blended in with the bulk of the lads playing soccer. I'm sure other boys probably said or did nasty things to me but in that pre-pubescent state it did not have any long-term wounding effect on me.

Secondary school, on the other hand, was a huge, bewildering change. Firstly, it was around three times larger than my primary school so all of a sudden you felt like you were a mouse wandering among a herd of elephants (i.e. older kids). From day one I just felt completely intimidated and lost. I found all of it very stressful: the step-up in academic difficulty; the preposterous workload of homework; the often cold and arrogant teachers we had; the large number of scumbag pupils.

Unlike primary school, my secondary was mixed. While it was wonderful to be all-of-a-sudden around so many pretty girls just when puberty was unfolding, I was terribly shy and never really felt comfortable chatting to pupils of the opposite sex - what I remember is a sequence of unrequited crushes on girls in my year or the year below.

On the positive side, I was lucky to form friendships with a group of 7 or 8 other lads who were in the same boat as me. My best memories of secondary school are of hanging around with my friends - and those guys still form my core group of friends 20-something years later.

Thinking back on it now, secondary school was essentially one long endurance test, the main goal being to not be embarrassed or humiliated. So to answer your question, I despised it 🤣

p.s. For what it's worth all the schools I went to were typical Catholic-affiliated schools but that was never a problem for me. I was in school 1988-2001, so maybe I was lucky to miss the bad old days of corporal punishment, etc.

Hamachi

Had a very uneventful time at school. I went to a sports-mad, all-boys secondary school in my small hometown.

Loved the academic side of things and got very high points in the leaving. Socially, I just had nothing in common with the guys in my year. I’m from a pretty large, very close knit family. I also had a couple of friends from a sport outside school. I never had that innate desire to make friends in school.

I guess I was a social non-entity in school itself. I finished my leaving cert at 16 and moved to Dublin for university the week I turned 17. Haven’t spoken to anybody from school since the day I finished my last leaving cert exam. I’m pretty sure most of the people in my year would scarcely remember me, except for the fact that I stood out academically.

My wife finds this utterly bizarre. She has a large group of friends from school, with whom she is in regular contact. She is of the mindset that you either loved school or were horrendously bullied. She’s not able to comprehend that some people just glide through the academics, whilst being pretty ambivalent to the people in your year.

Seems like most people here had either a terrific or an horrendous time. Anybody else have an uneventful time, without making any enemies or forging close friendships?

fritzelly

From a time with the cane on the backside or the ruler across the hand - what do you think?

Had one psychotic teacher who slammed a door on a kids hand very badly and also the chalkboard duster being thrown across the room at your head with precision aim.

Would have criminal charges brought against them in this day and age

Also had some amazing teachers

But you had your friends...good times

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118589183#Comment_118589183

G'way and shyte.

Schools in Ireland in the 70s and 80s routinely physically abused pupils and somehow this was regarded as normal. There were plenty of sex abusers lurking around, too, both lay and ordained.

You can brush it all under the carpet and pretend everything was fine if you like. It just makes you look like a fool.

Tony EH

School for me was fine, if a little boring. I had the subjects that I liked and the subjects that I loathed.

Socially, I got on with most kids cos I was generally interested in what other kids were doing. That usually meant the the music they were into. I was a "longhair" and into metal, but I would trade tapes with the other kids into different stuff. So the Cure heads and the Ska kids with lend me their music and I'd give it a go. They rarely got beyond a mild curiosity for what I was into though. 😆

My teachers tended to give me a lot of leeway too. History teachers and English teachers took their time with me cos I expressed and interest and my maths teacher liked me cos I was into aircraft and his brother flew for Aer Lingus. He actually organised a talk for his brother to give the class because of my interest in planes. The poor guy, I bloody hated maths. General maths was fine, but theorems and whatnot I couldn't stand.

In the end I suppose I had an easy time of it during my school days and the more I look back on them the more I realise it.

Lewis_Benson

Hated it from the day I started primary school at the age of 5.

And anyone who went to Athlone Community College during the 90s knows what my secondary school days were like....rotton.

madmaggie

Primary school was grand, the teacher was just putting in time until her retirement, didn't give a toss what we did.

Secondary convent school I hated. Nuns were so snobby, I wanted to go to the vocational school but wasn't allowed. I really hated that place, and those stuck up b***hes.

@Hamachi

I had a tough time in school. Purely in terms of the learning experience, there were classes and teachers that I loved both at primary and secondary level, and some that I didn't like at all. On the whole though, I suppose I enjoyed much of the educational aspect.

What I didn't enjoy was the social aspect. While I was never bullied horrifically, I lived under a constant cloud of low-level mockery and intimidation, or alternatively, disinterest and invisibility. It was there in primary school but it was quite pervasive at secondary school right up until 5th year. I suffered from low confidence anyway, because I was socially awkward, had a stammer, was always smaller than average and I stopped growing when I hit 5'6.

I attended a private secondary school and although the optics were good, and many teachers were excellent, there was a big rough element in the school and a culture of mockery and low-level bullying held sway, especially in first, second and third year. The class I was 'streamed' into in particular was ghastly, and came to be dominated by a complete sociopath. @Hamachi The school day ran from 8:45am to either 7:30pm or 9pm, depending on your age (and it was also possible to board there) so it wasn't possible to glide through it. It was a big part of life during those crucial teenage years.

The school had enormous grounds and placed a big emphasis on sports -- which I totally avoided. A small group of us roughed it out together, bound by a mutual sense of being in social difficulty and a love of the X Files. But we were not natural friends. This was in the mid to late 1990s. Today I haven't a maintained a single friendship or Facebook connection with anyone from my school days. I feel quite sad about that, because many of the boys were decent.

We are now more than 20 years out. I have never attended a reunion, though several have been held and invitations were sent to me by the erstwhile 'student of the year' when we graduated. (He was and still is a good guy, and has been in the public eye a few times for a courageous but thankless stand he took on an emotive social topic a few years ago.)

Perchance when I was meeting some work friends for a meal one evening a few years ago, one of them brought along a friend who happened to be a fellow who had attended the school, in my Year for all five years of secondary school. There were only around 65 people in our Year from First Year through Sixth Year. I immediately recognized him. He hadn't a clue who I was.

I did much, much better socially and performance-wise in university and work after school ended. I view my school days as dark days overall.

Can not really remember if I loved or hated primary school.

Secondary school however I have nothing good to say about. The school/teachers/system failed me in just about every way each and every time I needed it. And all but 1 or at most 2 of the teachers I encountered there were awful in one way or another. All motivation - joy in life - interest in education - personal confidence - and sense of self was drained from me in the 6 years I spent in that school.

And it was not until I was nearing the end of my time in college - bordering on the near fringes of suicide ideation on and off - that I managed quite suddenly to stand up and start to piece the pieces together and go on a better path that lead to the person I am today.

Absolutely hated my whole time in formal education from primary to secondary. It wasn't the teachers, most of whom were fine, some great but mostly interchangeable. I thoroughly hated the rote learning focus in schools and the lack of understanding sought when learning most subjects, which I wasn't suited for. Couldn't get my head around most of the content, without knowing the component parts, and teachers never really taught learning strategies to improve retention. It was only as an adult that I learned such strategies/tools, and it would have made school far far easier had they'd been taught formally.

But mostly, as others have said, it was the bullying that killed the entire experience for me. Primary school was layered in misery for physical and emotional abuse, which in turn, scarred me for dealing with others my own age or older. That fed into secondary school, where the bullying shifted in manner but remained near constant. People are generally quite mean to those who don't fit in, and as I had an obvious shaking disorder, they had plenty of ammunition for their sadism. It's taken me two decades to resolve most of the issues I had to deal with from that time.

University was much better, but honestly, it often felt merely an extension of secondary school, at least until I realised I didn't have to play by the same rules as everyone else.

So, yeah, school... horrible experience.

Mam1996

Primary school was not for me, went along with the flow so as not to draw attention to myself, flew under the radar mostly. Couldn't understand the teaching methods (or lack of!) and was branded as useless by some teachers. Secondary was completely different, I relished the subject choice and variety. Excelled academically and went on to college and became a success.

Looking back now after having one of my kids diagnosed as ASD and dyslexic I'm sure I just went undiagnosed and had to mask/figure my way through which was tough but luckily I was tougher. Had acquaintances more than friends but they needed me for my homework/free grinds really and it suited me too so I don't regret it. Never kept in touch afterwards though.

NSAman

We moved a lot as kids. Twice in fact. My primary school experience was superb. Coming back to Ireland having to learn Irish and being stuck in baby infants was embarrassing so by christ I learned fast. The teachers (both of them..2 roomed school) were absolutely fantastic. They instilled in ALL of us a thirst to learn. Made it a fun competition which meant as kids leaving primary, we were SOO far ahead of those in secondary.

Secondary was a disaster. I really loved learning, read everything. Studied everything I could. Understood everything I could. I remember the first introduction to secondary, Irish poetry, and biology especially. Read and learned the poems off by heart ..all of the book in the first week. I was bored…there was a book but once read that was it. Biology homework was about blood. Of course I went to every available medical book we had at home, read them all, understood the clotting agents, the composition, how it worked, why it worked, how it gave life. Wrote a massive “paper” on it…as I was taught in primary.

handed the paper in … brought up in front of the class and was told to stop Copying stuff I didn’t understand. When I said I understood it all, I was rebuked and called a liar. In hind sight I probably knew more than the “teacher” knew … same in Irish class… mock for having an interest.

secondary was a snooze fest… I coasted after that, most teachers were useless. Had no interest in anyone or what they taught. I failed the leaving as I was too young to go to university. I had to repeat. In repeat year I was told I “was stupid and “not capable” of doing honours subjects”. First time I ever told an adult to “f888 off” was a teacher who said this.

headmaster called me in, we agreed I could go to classes and if I had questions I could consult the teachers. I studied by myself.

ended up being first in our school…it felt like a complete waste of 6 years though. Irish schools at that time didn’t allow learning by experience and interest IMHO. It was learning by rote.

the one thing I taught my kids was to open their minds to any learning. Question everything, including questioning yourself. I hope I did a good job with them and hope that the system in ireland has progressed.

retalivity

Mixed primary school in the countryside late 80's/early 90's, have great memories of it. Nice teachers, lifetime friends I still see occasionally, no hassle or stress. Mixed secondary school also in the countryside, was mostly fine. Bit of bullying but nothing too bad, and looking back a lot of people had it waaaay worse. Was good academically, and friends and a great social life, being out and about with my peers in pubs/clubs from 15 onwards. Maybe din;t enjoy it enough at the time but looking back it was a great time of my life.

Then went to college then in Trinity and it was awful. The course was boring, lecturers were a bunch of tossers and the place was full of gimps. There was a small group of people that I hung out with that I would still keep in touch with, but I've no idea why i stuck it out for 4 years - just too stubborn to give it up probably. Ended up going out with mates in DIT/DCU most of the time, or going to Belfast/Galway most weeks to visit friends there - far better college experiences.

airy fairy

Hated it.

Got picked on in primary, mainly due to the fact I didn't live in the local estates, but out further. Never invited to parties etc and parents were country bred and didn't get that best friend/party/peer need.

Secondary was ok until Inter cert, was bullied unmercifully. Parents wouldn't let me go do transition year, and I had 2 years of being in classes with people I didn't know. It was a lonely time. Parents didn't believe in college, nor had money to support me, so had to go get a job.

I bettered myself through jobs, college courses etc. as I grew older.

But my parents never knew about the bullying, the lonliness and sadness I felt every day in school. I remember collecting my leaving cert results during a break from my job in the summer. No big reveal with friends.

I am super sensitive to my kids feelings, particularly in school, as a result.

swimming in a sea

I liked primary school. Secondary school not so much as very long days 7:30am to 5pm due to getting the bus...i don't think i was bullied anymore than most of the class, had the sh!t kicked out of me a few times.

I didn't have a clue what to do after school so just did a University course the guidance councillor said i'd get the points for (& they tell students not to do this) not a word about alternatives. I was too young, 16 when i did the leaving cert but I wanted to get out as quick as i could.

B.A._Baracus

Didn't like it. Primary wasn't too bad I guess but secondary? Full of bravado and 'scoring points' on everyone to make themselves look cool. You know yourself.

On the subject of school, I always remember when I was 13/14 there was this girl named Wendy in school. She was tall, shy and didn't say much. She was the butt end of jokes from lads. "you'd probably ride Wendy wouldn't ya!" - "I bloody wouldn't!" - All that garbage. But I left that school and just so happened one of the lads from my class was where I was two years later. Topic of Wendy got mentioned one day. He said "she's the local bike now" - all those lads who were slagging her and making fun of her were then looking to hook up with her / or either did. Can't blame the girl. Being a social outcast to having so much attention, let alone at that age. But a life lesson learned for me at 15: most lads try to come off as Casanova but the reality is the exact opposite. Here I am years later and most blokes are the same lol.

Higgins5473

Went to a Christian Brothers school where we were physically and mentally assaulted daily. The teachers that were not CBs jumped on the bandwagon and were at times worse. There was no sexual stuff, that I know of at least, during my years, this was the 80's and 90's. I was quite academically able so did not 'get it' as bad as some but it had an impact and I think back on that period to this day. I became extremely ill in 3rd year, to the point of hospitalization and they were unable to give any kind of concrete diagnosis as to what was causing the illness. Looking back, it must've been a physical reaction to the environment I was in. It was atrocious, the worst period of my life.

Ray Palmer

Primary school was fine but I did have depression at 9 and nobody noticed. Got through it but again at 14 I had a another year long depression and the school noticed and helped out. The secondary was a pretty rough school and all male. It was like lord of the flies. Bullying was an issue for some but generally people stood up for others so you wouldn't get away with it long. So many people knew each other from where they grew up you just wouldn't let somebody get bullied.

I was pretty active running and playing basket ball but I hated football and GAA and I was doing so outside of school teams. So I wasn't in the main sports teams which seemed to give people a lot of leeway. They were able to cut class to practice for example and they did gang up on people. One time one of GAA guys thought it would be fun to pick on me. He had gone to a different primary school to me and didn't know me and thought I was a push over. Some of the other warned him not bother me as I had a bad temper (depression linked). I ignored it for about a week as it was mostly talk. Walking down a very narrow corridor in between classes he went to trip me and I saw him sticking out his leg. So as I "fall" I landed on him and just started punching repeatedly very quickly, I got up and just walked away as the corridor was packed. He was bleeding on the ground and nobody saw anything as was school policy among students. None of his fellow GAA would aid in revenge. There was a bit of cat and mouse for the rest of the school year but each time he would end up worse off but he got a few good licks in here and there. Then I just broke his ankle intentionally and he still walks with a limp to this day. See him the odd time and always give him a wave and a smile. He still hates me. I have flipped back and forth whether I did the right thing over the years but ultimately he started it all and kept it going. The head master was furious because he wasn't able to play GAA and knew it wasn't an accident but couldn't get anybody to say what had happened.

School was more like prison rules and behaviour and I thought once out of school I would never have to deal with such idiots. Reality is it was training for the real world where there are more idiots.

HalloweenJack

I was a teacher's pet in primary but was decent at sports. I had a few friends but I was mostly a loner. I came from a home where a lot of importance was put on education but found that that wasn't cool or popular. I did get bullied a fair bit primary but through sports I got to hanging around with some of the cooler lads.

So I became a messer going into secondary. I was bullied a bit first but I (literally) fought back so that fizzled out. I am bright enough to able to get by without having to put too much effort into studying, which I now see was a problem. The secondary I went to was a disaster. Apart from one or two decent teachers, most were disinterested and most students were as well. School was boring and felt like a lot of time was wasted but I did enjoy the social apsect, especially in secondary.

College was alright. I got the course I wanted to and didn't have any trouble. with the work but some of the people on my course were incredibly snobbish and it did put me off people from the upper reaches of society. I didn't think it at the time but I look back now and say I was bullied by the posh kids there, simply because I wasn't one of them. A lot of them dropped out after first year so I didn't have to put up with it for long.

Just Some Young Lad

I had a bit of a unique primary school experience. I went to one school that only covered junior infants to first class. This was managed by nuns (the teachers were just civilians but the school had a very strong religious undertone). These years are my first memories of school. Overall, I look back very fondly on that time, however, there was one specific moment that I look back on that makes me upset/mad. My grandfather, who lived at home with my parents and I, had recently come home from visiting relations in Australia. He brought home pictures of wild Kangaroo and Koala and, of course, plenty of gifts. One of those gifts, that I greatly cherished, was a pencil with a kangaroo attached to the top. Long story short, I was messing in class one day after finishing work, the teacher thought I was dossing and came down and ripped the kangaroo clean off the top of the pencil. Needless to say I was very upset and whilst my parents went to the school and an apology was given, the pencil was never the same.

From second to sixth class I moved to a more rural primary school. This was an interesting time. It would have been the early noughties and the school was filled with a vast majority of Irish children. This is only significant because I had never had a friend from another culture before I got to third class. I then befriended a boy who came from Zimbabwe. This time in primary school flew by. Towards the end of fifth year and throughout sixth year I was bullied by a boy in the class below mine. Due to numbers there was often one teacher who would have half a room of each class. This meant me and that boy shared a classroom every day. Eventually I snapped and started to stand up for myself but unfortunately being young and not clued in I probably began to bully that same boy in retaliation. My parents weren't overly vocal when I was bullied. They would go to the school but the teachers would often just say "Yeah, we'll look into it" to appease them and they would go away trusting it would be sorted. This other boy's parents were a lot more aggressive and landed me in the principal's office etc. This put a bit of a chip on my shoulder and led me to wrongly believe that I was being unfairly treated, as a result I developed some anger issues.

Secondary school was a whole different beast. Going from a small rural school to a very large (500+ students) town school was a big, big, change. My friend from primary school went here also so I had somebody from the beginning. I also made a couple of friends in my class. We weren't very close in first year. Whilst the school was mixed, my class was entirely male. This led to two boys attempting to bully me again in first year. As a result of the anger issues and maybe not being streetwise enough, I would always take the bait and we would routinely fight. I was liable to swing a punch in the middle of class because I wasn't very tactful with dealing with it. This led to four suspensions and the threat of expulsion in first year. Something that I am extremely ashamed of today. At the end of that first year my friend from primary school passed away of an asthma attack. This left me very lost but thankfully the boys that I was loosely friends with took me into their group and we grew a lot closer. Up to junior cycle I kept my head down (so to speak). I was pretty disruptive in class but I stayed out of fights. I did discover a passion and a bit of a flair for rugby at this point though.

Transition year flew past. We had a foreign trip to Krakow where we visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, something that I will never forget. I matured a lot this year. I also made some new friends and finally overcame the anger issues through counseling and advice from those around me.

Fifth and sixth year was a little odd. I had always been academically inclined but it was often lost amidst the other issues that I created for myself. These two years allowed me to focus on my studies and I was doing incredibly well. I won a pretty large public speaking event too, which was something incredibly new to me. My grandfather died of cancer around this time too. I viewed him as a third parent of sorts and I found that very difficult. I probably retracted into my shell a little as a result of that. In sixth year I started a relationship that would end up extending for 6+ years. I was dead set on studying medicine at third level and becoming a doctor and at the time of my mocks was completely on track. Unfortunately I took my eye off the ball and was completely enamored with my partner at the time and as a result missed the points required for medicine. Thankfully I still did a good Leaving Cert by general standards but I was personally disappointed.

I went off the rails following this for four or more years. It was only by pure chance that I decided to go back to university.

At twenty-two I returned to education which was odd because everyone in my course (or so it felt) were straight out of school. I studied computer science, which I developed a passion for over time. I represented my class as their class rep and got involved in the students' union. I made some friends here. I remain pretty close with about four of them and don't speak at all with another four, but that's life I suppose. We graduated during the first Covid lockdown and completed our thesis from our bedrooms. That is something that I will forever look back on and admire as a situation that very few will ever relate to.

So, overall, I had a lot of important life lessons during my academic years and it really shaped me into being the person that I am today. Whilst there were some painful moments I'd live it all again because it brings me immense joy to look back at all the progress and growth that I have made as an individual.