# NT: Elementary school



## Oldlady (Sep 18, 2009)

Mokona said:


> I might sound racist or sth, but I really think that not intelligent people should be separated and taught in special schools. They hold the intelligent ones back. My friend even once said that she pretended not to know the answers on tests so she would get a low grade so her classmates wouldn't call her a geek


First of all:

what your saying has some truth to it. The public school system is designed for S's. I remember asking questions in math and science, and the teacher not being able to understand what I was asking. I would come up with an alternative theory about how to do the problem, and I would show it to them and ask, "Is this correct?" and they would say, "No... you do it like this (insert step by step format)" I would get frustrated, "Yes, I know..." and they would get mad at me for yelling at them, "Hey! I'm trying to help you!" I have since learned not to ask questions, but read the book.

Second of all:
Why would your friend jeopardize her grades for social acceptance? Couldn't she just, sort of, evade the question "What did you get?" in such a way as to make it seem like she got a bad grade?


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## Mokona (Feb 8, 2010)

> Why would your friend jeopardize her grades for social acceptance? Couldn't she just, sort of, evade the question "What did you get?" in such a way as to make it seem like she got a bad grade?


I really don't know why, I can't understand such behavior, but it's just sth sh did. And I met her only now in my studies, so I didn't know her before, when she would do that. I guess that's sth Extroverted Feeling people could do :mellow: No offence, if anyone took any.

You must've had really stupid teachers. I want to be a lecturer myself and I don't understand the situation when my student knows the answer better than I do and I just shake it off. It's not only depreciating for the student, it's also illogical: if there is a better answer and someone has found it, why dismiss it just because it wasn't me? 

Thankfully, my high school was perfect for people like me, with all my colleagues excelling in at least one subject and understanding that it didn't mean we were all geeks. And the teachers were very helpful as well, especially in the math classes. We were always looking for the answer together (well, maybe not exactly me because I wasn't that good, but anyway you get the point :wink.

I've learned one more thing during my elementary school: don't answer all the questions the teacher asks. Guess you could call it sth similar to what my friend did. But the fact that I didn't answer the question didn't affect my grades. I knew the answer, the teacher usually knew that I knew, and it was enough for me. And my classmates couldn't tell me that I was showing off or sth because I really was giving them a chance to sparkle :tongue:

Anyway, yeah. I guess we all could use a better educational system.


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## Oldlady (Sep 18, 2009)

I agree. If you answer ALL the questions you just seem like a show off. There's a spectrum of question difficulty. It's best to only answer questions on the higher end of this spectrum in order to seem intelligent but not show off-y.


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## kyu (Apr 14, 2015)

I loved elementary and high school. ESPECIALLY HIGH SCHOOL. It was one of the best times of my life tbh. I made a lot of trouble though. I've been deemed as the bully and mastermind of all troubles by my teachers even though I was an honor student. 

I had a weird hating for my new classmates that's why I "bullied" them but I didn't think of it as bullying though. I felt it was more like "get your shit together. this is a reality check" kind of thing lol. I didn't get along with my teachers too because aside from me constantly getting in trouble and owning up to the shit that I've done, I kinda talked back at them too. If I didn't like the things they tell me, I just literally raise my voice at them. 

University is pure crap though.


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## Elistra (Apr 6, 2013)

Heh, rather than pretend to be stupid to gain social acceptance, I actively showed off and rubbed it in faces. Lol.


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## TheEpicPolymath (Dec 5, 2014)

Nearsification said:


> I loved elementary school. Back when I could be creative and not get filled up facts about history which are probably wrong.:tongue:


yes yes yes


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## Torrefy (Apr 15, 2015)

Elementary school was...understimulating. I used to get individualised "special" work in the lower grades, but was later just labelled as "smart" because I stopped trying, honestly. My school didn't have enough funding for any type of "honours" program because there was an influx of ESL students and my mother wouldn't let me skip a grade because of my then lacking social skills, so I directed most of my energies elsewhere.


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## FourLeafCloafer (Aug 5, 2014)

Oldlady said:


> First of all:
> 
> what your saying has some truth to it. The public school system is designed for S's. I remember asking questions in math and science, and the teacher not being able to understand what I was asking. I would come up with an alternative theory about how to do the problem, and I would show it to them and ask, "Is this correct?" and they would say, "No... you do it like this (insert step by step format)" I would get frustrated, "Yes, I know..." and they would get mad at me for yelling at them, "Hey! I'm trying to help you!" I have since learned not to ask questions, but read the book.
> 
> ...


Where I'm from, we get separated into different levels from age 13 up. It lifts the problem a bit. Elementary school was extremely boring, and it got a bit better in secondary school... and it almost got fun at the end, when we were allowed to pick our own subjects. Now at university, it starts being a challenge, which is nice.


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## dracula (Apr 5, 2015)

Elementary school was sort of nice in a sense that it's impossible for me to stay focused so I never did my homework or studied for tests and still got mostly excellent grades although I did get in trouble quite often for being disorganized. I was very shy though so my inner extrovert I was unaware of wasn't too pleased. I remember being upset for always getting 9,5 from my tests (4-10 scale) and that a bit later on the only subjects I actually sucked at were German (started studying it when I was 9) and English (from when I was 10) because I thought foreign languages weren't my thing. The first two grades were extremely frustrating though, we start school when we are about 7 years old and most people in our class couldn't read so we spent ages studying it. I learned it when I was 4 or 5 and read whole novels at that point:|


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## Tetsuo Shima (Nov 24, 2014)

When I was in preschool, everybody would always call me a genius. Now that I'm in college, I make almost all F's.


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## Harizu (Apr 27, 2014)

I hated elementary school. To death. I wouldn't go back there for a million dollars.
I wasn't free to do anything, teachers never let me try anything because they thought that I was going to screw up for sure just beacuse I had been diagnosed with ADD. So as a result I never did my homework and was grumpy and angry all the time. And, what did they do? They put another label on me (ODD). Thinking that I wasted 5 years of my life in the most complete boredom really makes me annoyed. I learned more at home on my own than in school.
Middle school sucked just as much (but for different reasons), now I'm almost out of HS and even though I dislike the school system in general, I have to say that high school was way better than elementary and middle.


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## xForgottenOne (Mar 7, 2015)

To me, (our equivalent of) elementary school was nice. I didn't have the problems I have right now, my mental health was okay and I had a lot of friends. The classes were really boring though. I was always the smartest one, the one who could already read while the rest was like 'h-o-u-s-e... house'. I didn't do anything during those 7 years. At the end, I aced the end-test, the test that sort of determines what your further life is going to look like. I was withing the best 0.2% of the country! Okay, I'm zoning out. I really had an amazing time in elementary school, the only con I can think of were the boring classes.


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## TML3193 (Jan 27, 2015)

I absolutely hated elementary school. When comparing elementary school, high school, university and graduate school thus far, I've hated elementary school the most by far. There is zero freedom, you have no choice in classes (however, I think this is of course how it should be at this age level), teachers pretend that they are the benchmark of all knowledge, and it simply was not an enjoyable time. High school was much better than elementary school, I actually felt like there was a challenge, and there was added freedom. 

A touch off topic in a way, but in terms of university, it was bittersweet. Solely from an education perspective, the freedom to research, learn and explore was excellent, however by the time of my final year it all seemed redundant (liberal arts major). There was no point in going to classes, essays were a chore instead of a genuine learning experience, it really felt like most of the content was gained after the second year. Graduate school has by far been the most enjoyable, as it's specialized and much more practical-feeling. 

I would never get in a time machine and go back to elementary school.


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## starscream430 (Jan 14, 2014)

Nearsification said:


> I loved elementary school. Back when I could be creative and not get filled up facts about history which are probably wrong.:tongue:


As a person who loves history, I do agree that history is the subject that could make people feel ancient because of the way that it's taught, namely that teachers can make something as exciting as the World Wars feel...old :tongue:.

While I don't have too many fond memories of elementary school (I was not the social butterfly...so I was an odd child), I do have to agree that elementary school is the place where learning felt so alive and fascinating. No need to worry about which major makes the most money (yeah...I'm in university and I feel like an intellectual corpse) or gives you the best job - you learn because you love to learn :happy:.


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## SweetTsubaki (Dec 8, 2014)

I liked elementary school (well except a few month during my last year...and the food it was awful, well not american school awful but I can't eat fish anymore because of it).
Most of my teachers loved me because I didn't cause trouble and when they asked a question they actually _liked _it if I didn't have the 'school answer' because they wanted us to wonder and take informations with a grain of salt. If they saw I wasn't inclined to talk (or any other introvert or shy person -I'm both...not easy) they would stop and ask me if I wanted to write it or talk about it after class.
A lot of our lessons where put in a 'mind game' way so it was often fun, even when it was easy.

I had really good teachers, they didn't hesitate to use different methods for different children and didn't mind going the extra mile to help those who needed it.

All in all it was a pretty cool time as my teachers didn't hesitate to give me more games (middle school level, which sadly didn't help me there because it was more..."proper education" and I got so bored I ended up behind in class after 2-3 years of sleeping through everything and getting good grades ^///^;


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## Airess3 (Oct 14, 2014)

Lol, I spent a lot of time reading non-fiction books and searching the internet for answers to my own questions. My teachers would get me into trouble for outsmarting them and correcting them when their facts were wrong. But honestly, I really didn't care about authority or hierarchy, I just wanted the information to be correct.


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## sinaasappel (Jul 22, 2015)

I Liked elementary school
Friends, fun, and my curiosity was great!
I was an angel in school.... not so much at home
High school is fun when you pick the right classes
So far I have, but there are those days where its like aaaaarrrrghhhhgh I'm soo bored


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