Return of Brins (Brins Returns/School Essay)

Holidays are now over, so there's no excuse for getting back to work (assuming there is any, which there doesn't need to be). I am now going to deal with those old post titles of mine, and perhaps fix the Guide to Higher English essay later.

It occurred to me that a number of you might be wondering why it is that I've always written about school - things to be careful of/watch out for, and so on - despite having been near the end and now having left.

Well, the truth is, having approached (and now reached) the end of my whole school life, I've felt rather betrayed, or at least unsettled, at how quickly everyone seems to be happy to brush school aside as something for younger people, and that we're off to higher things. Before you say it, I fully understand that we don't have any reason to associate with school anymore; it's best not to dwell in the past, and the future/present is always the brightest place to be. The issue I have is how many people seem to have lost all empathy with younger children.

You see, when my friends and I were younger, we all knew of the banes and tortures of school; something which always saddened me then was the lack of appreciation we children received from adults for our plight. 'Surely they understand... they were us once!' I thought. To this day, and especially now, I am still upset at how few adults give children any credit for the difficulties they face and are forced to go through. I think the ethos is that 'it's over for us, so let them deal with it'.
I just can't let it go like this, however; it pains me to know that children all over are going through the things I did alone and confused, having no respect for doing so, and not realising how much the teachers say is fact and fiction...

...speaking of which, that's the second big reason I've written about school - having lived through school, I am shocked at the guiltless duplicity of (some of) the teachers in higher places: I say this in relation to secondary school particularly, where the of lies and exaggerations we were fed in assemblies were seriously uncalled for, some potentially traumatising to those concerned for their schooling and future (like I was). This could be justified with the excuse of 'keeping pupils on their toes' - giving them a light scare so the less-conscientious workers might get in gear. This probably works to some degree, but they could do it a lot more subtly, and giving students pet-fears for the rest of their school lives. The sinister tale we were told 5 years ago of the straight-A student who never got into university because - and I quote - 'he wasn't interesting enough' disconcerted me right up until I got my place offers.

So, I still write about school for school-pupils so that they might learn of problems, disappointments, and events awaiting them, so they won't be shaken or caught unaware by them (which does happen, believe me); it's also so they can defend themselves from scaremongering teachers. I know that my reader-base is very small, and perhaps only one or two people would benefit from the things I've written on before, but I want to do my bit for the children, if only out of respect for them.

Now that you know why I like to write regarding school, I encourage you to read up on those essays of mine (over on the right) - it's all my scope on school, using events from my school life as the basis.  ¶ 4:29 pm