School Survival

Have you ever felt like every step you take toward school is a step deeper into despair? Like the mere thought of sitting in those rigid desks for hours on end makes your stomach churn with anxiety? If you have, know that you're not alone. I've been there too, and it's a feeling that cuts […]

If you're reading this, chances are you're feeling pretty down about high school. You're not alone. In fact, there are plenty of us out here who feel the same way. So, let's talk about it. John Taylor Gatto, a renowned educator, once said that the true purpose of schools is not to educate, but to […]

Why on earth does school not teach us about money? It's like we're thrown into this system that's supposed to prepare us for adulthood, yet we're left in the dark when it comes to one of the most crucial aspects of life – managing our finances. John Taylor Gatto, a brilliant mind in the realm […]

CW: child abuse, physical abuse, bullying, verbal abuse, emotional neglect, invalidation, general cruelty and despair, self-loathing. This is a short summary (over 3000 words long!) of some of the ways I was traumatized by school. I might add to it later, and I might expand certain parts. I think that if I were to try to […]

by Alice Miller Few insights gained in the last 20 years are so securely established as the realization that what we do to children when they are small, good things and bad things, will later form a part of their behavioral repertoire. Battered children will batter others, punished children act punitively, children lied to become […]

The author of this post wishes to remain anonymous. This story involves suicidal thoughts, self-harm, and bullying. Please do not read this if those topics will trigger you. In elementary school, I was the girl who got perfect scores on everything - even pretests. Teachers and other adults expected a lot from me as an […]

This is definitely worth a watch. It's about being true to yourself... which can literally be dangerous to your health as a young person (depending on your family situation and how they react to things), but is also very important to your well-being and self-respect overall.   Video description: Learn why people tend to reactively […]

by Maurice Frank (source) Even in cases where no specified mental illness at all is ever claimed to exist, treatment powers and just the threat of their use, can devastate lives long term when child maltreatment situations, which are obviously not the child’s fault, come to involve child psychiatry. That happened to me, though I […]

by Maurice Frank (source) As an undiagnosed autistic, Maurice Frank suffered severely at school from being classified as gifted and talented. He describes his experiences of thirty years ago. Authoritarians like my former teachers have long made use of the idea of giftedness, with its appeal to wishful thinking and greed, to buy support. If […]

Original: Teachers give terrible advice on how to deal with teachers I recently stumbled upon a Quora question posted by a parent who wanted to know if she should speak to her daughter's teacher, who is a bully, about the teacher's treatment of her daughter. The Quora question asked: "My daughter's 1st grade teacher refused […]