School days, the worst days of your life

Anyone who says anything different from the title was either very good at sport, very lucky or one of the many bullies that make everyone else’s life a misery. I hated pretty much every minute of my seven years and looking back, I got through it because I had no choice. Music helped of course and I really started to make it my main passion in my teens. Scouting helped at the time by providing me with a place where hatred and mockery were absent from my life. It’s interesting that I looked at my fellow scouts as exceptions to the rule because they were actually decent people, whereas I internalised the fact that my tormentors at school, both students and teachers were fully representative of the male condition. I have been incredibly wary of males ever since and regard them as unpleasant unless proven otherwise. To be fair it’s a pretty sound approach to life as the bulk of males I have met outside of teaching have never encouraged me to reassess my view.

Single gender schools were extremely common in my school days and I think they were part of the reason for the bullying. There were no checks on behaviour because getting through bullying was considered to be a right of passage for all children. Bullies were considered to be the alpha males and were given free rein. If you complained you were ignored or regarded as weak. As many of the teachers at my school were also bullies, the students learnt from them. With the exception of the non white students I had pretty much the hardest time imaginable. Even right near the end I could be completely humiliated. A snide little bully called Tim Mercer was doing an assembly about our class and its seven years at school and he dedicated one section to the weird things I had done in our earlier years at school. I don’t think I have met a more unpleasant human being in my 60 years, but life being what it is, he has probably carried on bullying people and having great success in his life, because one thing I know is that bullies never change and that their behaviour is never called out.

I suppose you could say that I have risen above it all but I shouldn’t have had to. School days are definitely the worst days of your life and I don’t think many people would disagree unless they are from the three categories I mentioned at the beginning.