My Experience of School

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I started school being able to read and write but my handwriting was, and still is, disgusting and, at the age of 5 was back to front, like a mirror and I never cared how I looked.

I questioned everything that my teachers said and that did not make me popular. I worked quickly and this meant that, when I came to ask for more work, my teachers would tell me that I could not possibly have finished, without even checking that I had. So this often meant, in the beginning, that I would be made to stand on a table and everyone else would be told to put their pencils down because I had an announcement to make. Then I had to say that I had finished my work and this was supposed to humiliate me. Then, they changed the rules for house points because I got too many and it would not have been fair on the teams. I became a vegetarian and they viewed this as a challenge to them and used to make me eat my meat, even if it took an hour. The other kids in the class used to feel sorry for me because of that and that helped. Ironically, this made me very popular and I was called "the walking dictionary". In the end, they let me come and go as I pleased, writing music in the music room on my own and in the library on my own. It never occurred to me to tell my parents because they did not understand what was going on inside my head and would do whatever the teachers told them was right. My headmaster told me I was subsersive and he tested my ability but rang my parents to say that I had gone off their scales at the age of 8 but that he didn't know what to do with me so they just left it.

Is this sort of thing typical for anybody else here?

god thats upsetting...

it makes me so angry the way children who are unusal are treated.....

I faced similar situations, though not quite as extreme.... in the end i used all my focus and energy to fit in, instead of being myself.... when your a child your so unaware that i assumed i was a bad kid to be so different and cos of how the teachers acted... when you are an adult you relaise that some adults are just unkind and ignorent and are even challenaged by such behaviour.... shame. when your young you dotn question it.

I admire the way you stuck to your guns!! !

the walking dictionary... awesome.... i was called Docter Jones for my general knowledge!

Thanks. Nice to hear about you.

The thing is, I did exactly what you did. I retreated and just kept out of their way. I felt like a freak and have spent my life dumbing down and pretending not to have the views I have. The thing is that I don't have to do that now and that's a start, I suppose.

I remember being publicly humiliated as a form of punishment. I was overwhelmed and ran away to hide in the bathroom, and when the teacher managed to cajole and threaten me into coming back, she asked the entire class to tell me how terrible they thought it was for me to do that. that was the day I contemplated running away...
in high school I basically hid and read.

And the eat your food thing... I am allergic to eggs. before they knew they would force me to finish, despite me telling them that I was feeling sick to my stomach. pasta with hamburger makes me gag. guess what? I still had to finish it.

In elementary school I was reading somewhere at college level, and my parents were thrilled. still, I wasn't treated any different, I just had more expected of me.

You're definitely not alone. I may not be vegetarian, or able to write music, but there are other people out there like that. this is definitely a familiar story for me though.

I think the ridiculousness of the adults at your school and your fortitude in surviving it would make a great script. Have you ever thought of writing about your school experience? I guess it would be what they call a tragi-comedy. I just found out yesterday that when I was tested for placement before first grade, my score was low enough they almost assessed me as borderline ret*d. In actuality I didn't finish the test because I was too busy daydreaming.

lol, I can understand that. my grade 4 teacher spent incredible amounts of time trying to find a rewards system to get me to actually do my work instead of daydreaming.

It was screwed up. It was a catholic school and all a bit Angela's Ashes.

I know what you mean about that testing. My son was tested last week outside his comfort zone in an unfamiliar building and was cross and wanted to get back to school. He had been tested on familiar ground at school before. So the therapist said that he had taken a big backward step developmentally and that, unfortunately, this can sometimes happen. I told her that if she re-does the test at his school the answer will be totally different. I found it funny watching him going through all of his strategies to shake her off.

how can an 8 year old be desribed as subversive!!... i mean whats wrong with these people. amazing what you can justify in the name of religion.

Alice, i am also really just trying to rediscover my natural character, to try break free from the way i conditioned my own behaviour... i do feel somewhat disconnected from my true self as i feel like i have had to develop an ego thats all about not sticking out and beign aware of what might be considered odd behviour views or oppinions etc.. its hard but you just have to switch your anxiety off and try let yoru true emotions and feleeing raise from within.

i used to daydream all day long... be off in my own world... as a teenager i stopped that, i became aware that i always got in trouble when i was happy and away imagining.. or that people got upset with me. so i learned to create anxirty to make sure i was alawyas really alert enough to avoid daydreaming. i think that made alot of stress for me, and now after a decade of not really daydreaming much i am really hoping i can recapture that abilty as its a great way to express myself, be creative and escape.

what do you daydream about?

My head is so full of stuff all of the time that I am not sure if I often ever finish a thought before I move on to the next one. I hope we both manage to be ourselves from now on. I am sure the world would be better for it! I'll race you!

I spent two years in a southern baptist private school and they were pure hell for me. I was made fun of being poor and new kid on block. The teacher set me up to have trouble from day one. Seems all of my coping skills to survive were wrong and I was always being paddled for something. I was always getting detention for things and because I was a bus kid I had to serve my detention during lunch recess. They would lock me in a closet so I could pray for my forgiveness for my crime. I still have issues about closets and tight spaces because of this.

So sorry to hear it. Glad for you that it's over. Good to meeet you.

god its hard to switch off the ego and just get abit of peace and quiet! i sure know that feeling

heheh thanks for your kind sentiment! i wish you the best of luck too! race ya indeed!

I think that school for a lot of aspies it hell . But once you startet working you should not think about all the bad things that happened in your school all the time. It's just like blaming you parents for all the bad things in you life. Of couse you should tell people about the hell you went trough but never tell yourself that anyone can make you become what you don't want to be. Your life is your own responsibility.

School was Hell...

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Im my school when I was around 6; there used to be something called the "naughty cupboard" which I used to get locked in (LOCKED, not lying here)
whenever I had a meltdown/sensory overload. The teachers were always shouting at me, letting the kids mock me, and treating me like crap. One day in the school playground, some kids pulled my pants down. They were laughing and I was on the verge of a BIG meltdown. I threw the slide (you know the fisher price ones) through the window of the school, I got excluded from the school, and the kids who did that to me got away with it. After I told my parents what happened (some other parent saw what happened, and some of the kids in the class told their parents about the "naughty cupboard") they sued the teacher who did that and I went into a new school, where more bullying happened, and its been like that ever since

Its really painful remembering really. At the time I had no idea why people would want to do that stuff.

Stick with it - I've been there and it doesn't last forever - Best of British to you!