Did you do well in school?
Did you recieve a good education?

I missed vast amounts of school. I'm thinking of going back to education. I'll be a mature student, whatever that actually means

I'd like to read and write better. Learn the discipline of study, does that make sense? I mean I'd like to see if I have the discipline to sudy and stick at it.

I'm considering it anyway...might be good for me.

School taught me to read, write and a smattering of maths.
Using those, I took on my own education.

I hated school, (the feeling became mutual), I would truant in a heartbeat when the opportunity presented itself but I would go and hang around places like the museums and galleries.

I've always taken the attitude that certificates were only testaments that you'd learnt what they wanted and not what you wanted. So they didn't motivate me in the slightest.

In a nutshell. I love education and hate schools.

I went back to study as a mature student. I am hoping to get enough money together (one day) to do another degree or maybe even an MA. I'm not sure what I want to study yet, but it's immaterial until I have the money for it anyway. I enjoy studying, researching topics and writing essays/dissertations. Weird eh?

If you want to start improving reading and writing just start reading lots of stuff now A lot of people knock formal education. It's certainly not the be all and end all, but you mention the discipline of study. That's probably the main benefit from formal eductation. Plus, it does feel good to start a course, do the work and complete it. What that teaches you about yourself is just as valuable as any certificate you'll gain.

I feel exactly the same way Feather
I learned to read and write fairly well, and I leared a tiny amount of maths. I didn't really educate myself though...I played computer games mostly So I feel like I've missed out on something, that I can't read and write as well as I could.
I used to truant all the time. I'd walk all day in the rain. I'd get the bus into town. I'd spend my time strolling around museums and libraries. I don't think I really learned much from that though. I didn't read any books in the library, and I didn't learn much about history in the museum, I just used to walk around and look at stuff, never really reading the plaques that explained what the things I was looking at were

I hated school. I liked the school dinners though

Maybe you could do an adult evening course in something like creative writing? It might be a good outlet for your existential angst? Even something artistic maybe?

btw I'm not knocking formal education for everyone. We all respond to different stimuli and find our own paths.
I write purely from my own perspective.
Perhaps shaped by the dead-beat, disinterested, paycheque collecting, automatons I encountered at high school.

feather wrote:
I didn't enjoy school either. When I was a youngster it just felt like you had to jump through hoops and go through the motions, it felt pretty futile tbh. As an adult the experience of eductation was completely different. There were aspects that weren't so good, but aspects that were also valuable.

I don't think you should rely only on others for eduction though. People need to be able to educate themselves too.

I shall return to this thread after a good kip

Thanks for your contributions thus far

Does anyone actually like school? The comprehensive school system is designed to produce economically useful drones who "are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paper work and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the moment you go to collect it", and I would say also to accept the fact that they don't exercise any decision-making over their own existence, that there is a class of person who fills these positions and these people are sacrosanct (which the public / private school system / Oxbridge is intended to churn out), and even aspiring to be part of that process is to be frowned upon.

Once you've got the basic English and maths you don't learn anything of substance, you're not 'educated', you're steadily institutionalised, conditioned to accept that you will spend hours a week somewhere that you hate, doing stuff that doesn't remotely interest you, conditioned to accept authority, routine, the rule of law, and so on.

All of my best memories of school are when I managed to get out of lessons by skiving.

School and education? School and indoctrination would seem more accurate.

I loved doing my GCSE Art. A couple of the teachers let us smoke fags in their staff room

LesleyPumpshaft wrote:
I could do something like that Lesley

I did do a GCSE course in English Language a few years back...I quit after a few months though. I just lost any interest I might have had and went back to playing games

I think creative writing would be good for me. I get embarrassed though if I've got to write something proper from my mind and that I'm much less embarrassed spouting my nonsense all over public forums though, which is a bit weird

Did okay in school. Got good grades and whatnot. Dropped out in 10th grade because I was bored out of my mind and sick of arguing with the teachers Ended up testing into a couple colleges and getting a degree in art, not that, that has done me any good lol.

Well educated? Well no if we go by school standards, I didn't fall into the "easily brainwashed" category, I questioned authority, I questioned school systems and the deans/principles, I questioned what they were teaching and rebelled via essays. I learned the basics, everything else I have basically taught myself or learned from interacting with people who are not teachers/instructors.

Nothing wrong with furthering your education Irr. Choose something of interest, don't worry about going after the degrees and diploma's though... it's a waste of time you could spend doing other stuff when they cram English, History, Math and the likes down your throat all over again. So if you're interested in Psychology, just take the psychology classes and ignore the requirements of all the basics for a degree. You don't really need discipline for study if it's something you're interested in...the need for structure and discipline comes in when you're being required to memorize crap that is of no interest to you. JMO anyway... good luck!

Thanks SC

I didn't spend enough time in school to question anything The only question was "Do I like it here?" The answer "No I don't". The solution "I'm getting the fuck out of here!".
I think I managed about three years of truancy

You're right SC, I should take a class I'm interested in, and forget the English, Maths nonsense.

I'll have a think about it

I led a protest at school, about school dinners. We marched around the playground with our placards.

I was 9 then.

But, overall, I had a decent education offered to me. I was lucky to go a Grammar School, the teachers were interesting and wanted us to do well. It was a happy school, and no abuse for trying or being clever. Trouble was, being a Grammar School, it was rugby, rugby, and more rugby. Cross-country in between the rugby. Ha, I got sent-off playing cricket once.

irrepressible wrote:
I don't think that forgetting those subjects is an option if you attend college key skills are a requirement. Those apparent key skills are Written and Verbal English, Maths and IT. If you have existing GCSE qualifications older that three years you're required to retake the key skills as part of your course. That was the policy just over four years ago and I doubt it has changed very much since then.

It would seem that a state education has a limited shelf life or the rules of Maths and English change dramatically over the course of three years. Alternatively it could be considered a revenue raiser for colleges which are busy turning out students with pointless pieces of paper.

I did OK at school, although I didn't really enjoy it until I got to the Sixth Form and was able to concentrate on subjects I actually enjoyed - I did English, History and Classical Studies for A-level and was most relieved to leave maths and science behind! I was also delighted to be able to jettison sport, at which I am deeply rubbish!

There were, however, many expectations placed on me to do well and unfortunately I ended up having a mental and physical breakdown at uni and dropped out.(Admittedly a lot of it was my own fault - I have a tendency to be my own harshest critic!). Now I'm the biggest under-achiever I know! I've done some courses, in Spanish and Creative Writing, though, and I intend to do more. I actually really enjoy study, as long as I'm not stressed about it!

Mandy

paid no attention at all at school and was left alone by the teachers, I don't think they knew who I was, I wasn't there often
stopped going when I was 15 and the teachers never even chased me up, lol, things have changed a bit since those days.

I taught myself everything I know so I consider myself fairly well educated but with big gaps.

I would say I've been very well 'educated' by the establishment lol

Parents always view it as being about getting a job though don't they? :p
Education 'should' be a life enriching experience. not something that just gets you a job.

Despite the high level of mainstream education I had, it was still bloody useless. I've ended up adding to it with vocational IT qualifications because ironically enough the IT biz want people with m$ or linux or oracle qualifications rather than degrees.
I guess its because the industry has come to acknowledge that degrees are bloody useless.

I actually wanted to do psychology, c'est la vie.

I have a High School Diploma, and College diploma. I said College, not university. These things are useful pieces of paper when it comes to acquiring employment.... but beyond that, ???

Not everyone was made to have academic success. It doesn't suit everyone. I like academia to a point, but feel I have "learned" much more from travelling, other people, and reading what interested me.