* Disclaimer: English isn’t my mother tongue and it isn’t free of mistakes. Although, I want to write in English bc it’s a language which so many people can understand 🙂
For me it’s always hard to explain and let the other person feel how it is to love school. I can’t really remember how it was for me as school wasn’t my favourite part of the day too. I attended school since I was 6. At first it was primary school, then it was the grammar school. Until I was 14, it was also for me ONLY school. Doing some homework, meeting friends, looking forward to breaks, trying to understand all the stuff while trying to coordinate my life (now I know, it wasn’t a little part of what is life like, but that time it was the world).
During my 13th and 15th grade I started thinking about my life, struggling with myself, finding out who I am and who I want to be. It’s a process (and I am still processing), but it leads for me to enjoying every moment I could, being thankful for my friends, my family, my education and creating myself. At first all that sounds beautiful, but in the end I was and am still struggling with it 😅😇
However, it also changed me, so I went to school after the holidays, and it felt different – especially bc I was in another school during the first month 🤣 As I came back it was kind of horrible for me to see all my old colleagues and go back to an old routine. I couldn’t present myself anymore as what I wanted to be like, all people thought they already knew me (what was obviously right – at least partly). It felt unreachable to change myself like I wanted to be. Before I always wanted to be as the other wanted me to be. So I tried to be fully me as I came back. During the first time I often heard how much I’ve changed, but they also accepted me as how I was then.
You were maybe wondering why I am telling you all that weird stuff, but I suppose, it influenced me a lot, and how I think now. I struggled with a lot during the first year back at my old school, but I also began to develop myself, finding my priorities and live them – at least in a certain way. I didn’t get it to be fully me, but it felt better than before.
During all that time I started appreciating school, that I can learn something new, having so great teachers, accepting also the bad sides and come over them. I learnt to accept the teachers, to deal with their priorities and weaknesses and to help myself with different ideas to use my time in school as good as I can.
Some Reasons what made me more productive
Firstly, I tried to find the positive points in every class and subject. What do I like about the lessons? What helps me to find the lessons more interesting? How can I motivate myself with those aspects?
For example: I like the teacher or I like the way he/she is teaching.
If there weren’t good reasons, I tried to make the lessons more attractive for my individual person. What do I like?
For example: I like doing bullet journaling and calligraphy > I wrote down my notes with some calligraphic heading.
Thirdly, you can ask yourself for the logical reasons. What can I do to stay productive? How can I use that lesson to minimize my work? What can it give me?
For example: If you participate in school and think through it, you won’t have to do it at home. AND It’s time-wasting only sitting in class and do nothing besides starring at the next wall. OR Maybe it will help me in the future , and give me more knowledge about a specific topic.
I tried to appreciate every lesson, every topic and every investment of the teacher, for I was thankful for what school gives me, that I had the opportunity to attend school.
It also helped me trying to understand the teachers and why they were acting like that.
An additional aspect which came on the top: There was corona. I am not sure if I have done something wrong, but I was working approximately 18/7 during distance learning, and I missed school totally much. I hadn’t fun anymore until I was allowed to go to school again. All the jokes and the accidents as well as experiences which happen unexpectedly weren’t there while home schooling; therefore, I absolutely enjoyed laughing again 😜😊
School is such a great part of life. You experience so much during school time and in school, so it can be life changing 😉🥰 During and after home schooling I always was totally excited to be in school again. I was looking forward to feel the school again, to see my friends, to see my teachers, to learn, to experience and to laugh
I could tell you so much more about why I love school so much, but there you have also notice that although I love school, it doesn’t mean that I didn’t have times when I don’t like it, when all the exams and people are too much, too overwhelming for me.
Xoxo
Amara
2 Responses
Dear Amara,
I am glad to hear you think of school in such a positive way. Other people could learn from you in that regard, but I am afraid not everyone wants to even try liking school. There could be several reasons like not having (the right) friends, a lack of interest, or not having enough motivation to study, which is admittedly difficult.
Some of my classmates hated school, the subjects, and the teachers, and in turn affect all other pupils around them making them less motivated for school.
Kids have to pick what school they go to next at a very young age, where their interests haven’t set in properly yet. They might loose interest in a subject or discover a completely new one making their school unsuited for the education they actually desire.
In addition many parents pressure their children into attending certain schools or having grades above a set threshold, which, luckily not from my own experience, makes them think of school as something they have to do to make their parents proud and don’t do it for themselves.
I think an extremely important factor in your attitude towards school is how you were raised. Parents should make their children curious, learn about science, history, or maths with them, and encourage them to expand their knowledge on their own and experiment, instead of saying things like „I was always bad in school.“ or „You will never need that later in life.“. It’s discouraging and the worst thing that could happen to a young and curious mind.
While this comment may seem rather negative, I think it is also important to highlight those parts to understand where the hate towards school comes from, in order to more easily recognize and solve these problems.
Sincerely,
OneManCrusade
Dear OneManCrusade,
I want to thank you for investing time to create such a long comment! I agree that those aspects are important factors!
I had a great childhood, and I am totally glad to be raised where and in that familiy I was. I hadn’t the pressure to have all As in my certificate by my family, but that doesn’t mean I had no pressure at all. A part of my family wasn’t happy with the school I was attending, and they were often disappointed by me and my performance. Additionally, I often was very unpopular in my class and had absolutely unmotivated classmates, etc. I know that it’s cristicism on a high level, but only because the world seems totally happy, someone is acting normally, attending school, having good grades etc. it doesn’t have to match the view how she/he/* feels and is interpreting the situation.
For me it’s crucial to mention that I want to concentrate on the aspects we are able to change as well as on which we can have influence! We cannot change how we were raised, who our parents are, who is in our class, who is motivated and who is not and who are our teachers, but we can have an impact on how we handle the situation!
The school system is also a problem for many students I suppose. Nobody fits in that system for 100%, but some people are better in adjusting than others – also because of other preconditions. Many students have serious problems which aren’t compatible with our system nowadays, but it won’t get recreated so fast in the near future in my view. Therefore, it’s much more important to focus on other aspects which can be affected.
Little disclaimer: Bullying is for some people for sure a negative experience in school that can be totally impressive. Please tell someone (friend, buddy, family, teacher, hotline service, etc.) about it! Therefore, they can hopefully help you! I only was „bullied“ for two months, but it was kind of horrible – as my teachers noticed, they helped me handling it.
PS.: I am sorry that I did answer so late… I haven’t seen your comment before.
Kind regards,
Amara