School days, the good, the bad and the ugly.

JAS_OH1 said:
Me too. I'll ramble a bit though.

To begin with, we moved a lot so I had to change schools frequently. I went to 3 different 2nd grade classes when I was 7-8. It's hard to make friends moving around so much. My dad retired from the military when I was 10, so after that I stayed in one place for the most part, but I was always the shortest one in my class and a late bloomer, so I got picked on and bullied up until I was 15. I grew up over the summer that year and then all of the boys who had been mean to me wanted to date me. No thanks.
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Hey, I went through that too. I've moved 11 times with my parents before I was 18, so it's very relatable what you're saying. Having to start over so often does a number on you as a kid. My father wasn't in the military, but he was unable to hold a job for long as he'd always get into conflict with his fellow managers.
 
School busses are another thing unheard of in the Netherlands, here everyone uses their bicycle to go to school. Makes sense of course if you realise how small and densely populated our country is. The only time we'd be in a bus with my classmates was when the school would organise a visit to a museum or something like that, then we'd be in a hired touringcar.

I had no teachers to have a crush on, though I was the teacher's pet. I was bullied a lot but the teachers liked me and I had very good grades (I was bullied for being a nerd) so I did get some preferential treatment like being allowed to be upstairs during recess which reduced the bullying significantly as I was the only student allowed upstairs.
However, the teachers were the only positive interaction I had during my school years. I have made no friends during that time, and after that it was a lot harder. I succeeded in building a social life eventually, but it took a lot of time.
 
Windigo said:
School busses are another thing unheard of in the Netherlands, here everyone uses their bicycle to go to school. Makes sense of course if you realise how small and densely populated our country is. The only time we'd be in a bus with my classmates was when the school would organise a visit to a museum or something like that, then we'd be in a hired touringcar.

I had no teachers to have a crush on, though I was the teacher's pet. I was bullied a lot but the teachers liked me and I had very good grades (I was bullied for being a nerd) so I did get some preferential treatment like being allowed to be upstairs during recess which reduced the bullying significantly as I was the only student allowed upstairs.
However, the teachers were the only positive interaction I had during my school years. I have made no friends during that time, and after that it was a lot harder. I succeeded in building a social life eventually, but it took a lot of time.
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Thats really tough.
Bullying is so horribly damaging and in my view sadly accepted as normal by a lot of teachers when it should instead be dealt with firmly and immediately.
It would be beneficial to teach children about the damage bullying does and the consequences behaviour can have on all parties.

They now teach school children in the UK about coercive control and abusive relationships, how to spot behaviours in a relationships that are unhealthy and how to get help.
As a result my sons generation are very clued up on controlling or unhealthy behaviour in their relationships and have the language and ability to call it out.
That IMO is a huge step forward in preventing domestic abuse, to have the ability to see the controlling behaviours and get help before they ramp up to a dangerous level.

Theres no reason that couldn’t work for bullying too, explain what it is, why it happens and give them the language and ability to call it out. If everyone knew what it was and could see when someone was doing it would provide the social pressure to make it stop.

My eldest son was bullied, he went from being a happy smiley little boy to really sad and withdrawn. It was absolutely heart breaking. It stopped in the end because the school was responsive but he never enjoyed school, it took literally years for him to work his way through it back to the happy person he naturally is.
 
I went to school in Holland, so like Windigo said, no school buses, no school lunches.
Cycling to school and packed lunch, 2x double slice whole wheat with cold meats. No cheese for me (hate it)
I didn't mind school, didn't hate it, didn't love it.
School (secondary that is) was just something you had to do.
We were all day schoolers. Boarding school being uncommon in the Netherlands.
Sports and other activities were for the evenings and weekends.

Now university days is a whole different story!
Those I loved :)
 
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