Do you miss secondary school?

KingBrian2 · 21-01-2016 09:36PM

Used to. Time moves on and I became more comfortable in the post school world.

backspacer · 21-01-2016 09:49PM

Miss it like getting a rectal exam from a paedo, shower of pricks.

RonanP77 · 21-01-2016 09:55PM

I absolutely hated it, it was 5 years of absolute torture. Part of it was my own fault for being so quiet but it was mainly because I was surrounded by hundreds of assholes.

Rega · 21-01-2016 10:41PM

Finished school 18 years ago and I actually can't remember much about it. I just floated along, staying out of the way. Wasn't a messer, wasn't a great student, wasn't a hurler, so wasn't on anyone's radar. Didn't get hassled. Have no opinion about the place one way or the other. My friends and I were just waiting to get out of small town Ireland. Went to university. Best time of my life.

RandomName2 · 21-01-2016 11:02PM

What I miss?

A distinct goal, stability, structure.
The idea of "all being in this together".

What I don't miss:

The fact that the goal was leaving, that the stability and structure involved being treated as a non-person whose opinion and time didn't count. The meat grinder of progress, and the back-biting mentality that pervaded all aspects of life. The fact that you weren't "all in this together": it is a fight for the most points, in an environment where people are encouraged to turn against one another. Not good at sports or exams? Then you are scum.

You don't learn, you progress; one foot in front of the other within a prison. You can't leave except on bail. It's not like changing job or home, there's far more overhead than just euros. It is an institution that pervades every part of your life. It is your career. Your future. Your social life. Screw up, and that smell will haunt you.

Corpus Twisty · 21-01-2016 11:04PM

Miss it? I barely remember it. The joys of youth.

failinis · 21-01-2016 11:36PM

I hated secondary school but I do miss my foundation art year before Uni.
It was a great break between the two stages and way less stress than school gave me!

suicide_circus · 21-01-2016 11:40PM

I miss not being a decrepit old cynic but I don't miss the actual schooling bit, no. Some of our teachers were bearly capable of functioning in public let alone impart knowledge to children.

Medusa22 · 21-01-2016 11:57PM

No, I definitely don't miss secondary school but it was alright. I went to a private school and the other girls were fine but we didn't have much in common and I had so much going on in my life outside of school and I was ill so I was frequently absent. I would never want to go back to my teenage years in general, the worst years of my life for a variety of reasons.

Deep Six · 22-01-2016 12:01AM

I hope everyone I went to secondary with dies roaring...so no I don't miss it at all.

wakka12 · 22-01-2016 01:02AM

Not even a little, it was just so ****ing terrible. I was treated horribly and Im only starting to realise now just how low my quality of life was during secondary school . I didnt enjoy like at all, I just wish I could forget my time in secondary school completely because it just makes me sad to think about it

mansize · 22-01-2016 01:34AM

No, it was 25 years ago since I started 18 since I left

somefeen · 22-01-2016 01:45AM

backspacer wrote: »

Miss it like getting a rectal exam from a paedo, shower of pricks.

Christian Brothers?

chrissb8 · 22-01-2016 01:47AM

I have to say I'm not embittered towards anyone in my year I still see them around and have a chat and that. At the time in school though jaysus, egos to boot in some people a fictional hierarchy if you did rugby you were special with everyone else falling beneath that.

The leaving cert, a test of memory not knowledge. I remember writing down answers for exams that I just learned to put to memory. Says it all. A joke of a system that inspires no free thought just planning and memorizing. When I went to college I thought to myself I enjoy doing this why couldn't school be like this? Wouldn't it have been better to keep base subjects like English, Maths and than study subjects you enjoyed.

Life is amazing now. I found my sense of self after school and as a human done most of my growing away from school. School is just a bubble environment for 6 years that some people revel in and others see as a holding place constraining them.

The only thing I miss is the lack of real responsibility and the privilege of being able to waste away weekends and holidays with friends and girls. I miss the time being off around school than anything else.

we'llallhavetea · 22-01-2016 03:08AM

Christ no! sure we couldn't even drink legally. boring as fcuk, spent the last two years laying around my house while the parents were in work. also teenage girls should be locked away while theyre in their cnut phase.

c_man · 22-01-2016 09:52AM

I did enjoy Leaving Cert year. I really felt like I'd finally got somewhat comfortable with myself. Had a group of friends, had the craic off bushing (or knacker drinking if you will) and the giddy thrill of getting served in a pub or let into a nightclub! I didn't feel the stress of the CAO, the points for what I wanted had fallen through the roof (thanks tech crash) and I was naturally gifted towards Maths so doing that, Applied Maths, Chemistry and Physics was a doddle as well as really interesting. Good times going to all the "socials" and getting a gang together for lunch time kick-arounds (often with a little hash :eek: ). Mitching was fun back then, now I know if I take a sickie my work will still be waiting for me when I come back.

That being so, it's not something I'd want to revisit. Everything has its time and place, I was lucky enough to enjoy the latter part of my secondary education but I've changed a lot since then. No point dwelling on the past.

agent graves · 22-01-2016 10:11AM

the_syco wrote: »

Nope. Although a few teachers could get their students to learn, most taught without caring if their students learnt anything. Guidance counsellor was crap (my response to his hanging was; pity it didn't happen before I left the place), and thus I don't miss the place at all.

a man hangs himself and you say that? disgraceful. that school was probably a better place without you there.

Rawr · 22-01-2016 10:45AM

agent graves wrote: »

a man hangs himself and you say that? disgraceful. that school was probably a better place without you there.

I would concur that was a harsh thing to say, and based on what the_syco is writing I think I probably went to the same secondary school (a certain North Kildare establishment with a weird modern-art design that resembles a bag of knives stuck into the ground).

However, in vain attempt in explaining why syco probably wrote that (without derailing this whole topic into a debate about this guy), that particular guidance councellor was more than a bit off, and not particularly good at the job either. He was also suspected of being involved in some very murky stuff while working there. I was kind of shocked when I had heard he had offed himself, but at the same time the whole place was so damned toxic I wasn't *too* shocked.

I certainly don't miss grim stuff like that.

MRnotlob606 · 22-01-2016 11:02AM

Secondary school is where critical and creative thinking goes out the window, and complacency and conformity are the norm.

Really hated some of the students more than the teachers, some of them were absolute smug supine brown nosing little fúckers.

Also remember been sent out of every religion class in third year for refusing to buy a religion book. Don't regret it either.

foxy farmer · 22-01-2016 11:28AM

Secondary school for me lasted from 87 till 92. Mixed school with around 800 pupils. Full range of subjects. Enjoyed woodwork, metalwork, tech drawing, science, geography and maths. The rest was meh.
I remember german teacher stopping a double class about 20 mins in to discuss why i was not planning on going to college when she asked me a question in german about future plans. Discussion turned into a full hour long debate about my future and the irish education system.
School was demolished around 02 ( weird multicoloured fibreglass building built in a circle and looked likea star! )and replaced with a PPP building. Went back in 01 on an open evening just for nostalgic reasons. Most of the teachers were still there and was pleased a few remembered me.
Often when i come in and plonk myself on the sofa I get flashbacks of having to face 3-4 hrs of homework. 24 years later it still frightens me.
Only thing i miss is seeing amadáns get reprimanded for various misdemeanours and the ensuing war of words.
That and the lovely girls!

Canadel · 22-01-2016 11:43AM

I miss it like I imagine you can miss being raped.

Mod: Banned

Dyr · 22-01-2016 12:36PM

Should point I went to a great primary school and then my first three years of secondary were in this massive dickensian hell hole that belonged back in the 50 (1850s or 1950s, could be either)

I bailed out of there in third year and went to a local comprehensive secondary school for the least three years. I was a bit like a hardened lag coming out of a maximum security prison into a low risk training centre, I just didn't take it very seriously.

Noo · 22-01-2016 12:50PM

Enjoyed sixth year (minus exams obviously), the whole year seemed to dissolve their cliques and everyone just got along. That being said ten years on i still have nightmares about having to sit the leaving cert again, ive done 4 years of college engineering exams but have never dreamed about those, really does scar you for life.

markc1184 · 22-01-2016 12:57PM

I miss some of the characters, students and teachers, but that's about it.

mansize · 22-01-2016 05:11PM

I miss it like the deserts miss the rain- if they had rain they wouldn't be deserts- SO NO!

diomed · 22-01-2016 05:31PM

I don't miss it in the slightest. Strangely I live within sight of it. My house is apposite their Gaelic pitches (soccer not allowed in my day).
We had a five and a half day week (I am old). On Saturday we got off at 12:25 and when the clock clicked 12:25 and the bell went the place cleared instantly. I was on my racer bike speeding downhill to watch the football preview on BBC Grandstand at 12:30.
Two of the teachers were nice, some were acceptable, and there were a few mental cases.

Inventive User Name · 22-01-2016 05:48PM

I miss it very much to be honest. I was surrounded by my friends every day, having the craic acting the maggot. Now I'm in college and I can't relate to anyone in my course in the same way, don't have any college friends, and I've lost touch with a lot of my friends from secondary school. Trying to reconnect with them but it's easier said than done. Bit of a bummer all round.

22-01-2016 07:36PM

The premise of a lot of deep and meaningful American films is the guy who had his glory day in school and now is a looser who spend his days reliving his past, mean while the quiet nerdy loner who never liked school has now gone on to become wealthy/ cool/ and hansom

Sentimentalising the past is not a good idea.

Rented Mule · 22-01-2016 08:08PM

I finished secondary school 20 years ago. Would I like to be 17 and know what I know now? Absolutely.

That being said, I still keep in contact with my closest friends from that time in my life. There's no need to go running back to a bygone era. Life is too interesting now.

Earthhorse · 22-01-2016 09:08PM

Azalea wrote: »

No way. Great facilities, great building, teachers with a passion for education, but ruined by scumbags - including ones who intimidated teachers. There was a dominant culture of being anti ambition, anti aspirational - being a swot was just not the done thing if you wanted to be accepted. A trap I stupidly fell into. Any of the teachers who didn't seem to give as much of a **** were, I'd bet, ground down by the prevailing attitudes. By all accounts, it was a good school at one time though.
One teacher let it slip one time that the alumni of times past would be shocked at the way things declined.

I had a group of friends there all right but we all drifted very quickly after leaving cert - I'm only friends with one now.

Any time I talk to other people who went there, all those who have daughters agree they will not be sending them to that school!

Also, more generally speaking, the curriculum was tedious beyond compare.

Plus, college and being an adult was/is infinitely more enjoyable and free!

Sounds quite like my experience only we didn't have a great building or facilities and I didn't try too hard to be popular. It was good and bad to be honest. Mostly, I don't miss it but we definitely had some good laughs too. Far preferred it to college which I found very lonely and a worse educational experience.

Last year I bumped into an old classmate and w spent the day catching up. He still misses the place he told me which I couldn't believe. He's successful too; wife, kids, self employed but he thought school was great.

I think people are way too harsh on the curriculum too. Sure, it could be improved, some of it drastically, but it's not as bad as people make out.

Do you miss secondary school?

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