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Hating School

Through our research, we've found that a significant number of people have had unhappy experiences at school. For some, this was because of struggling with the ways in which they were taught or the content of what they were being taught. For others, it was the lack of support from peers and/or teachers which led them to hate school. Here, we look into the reasons that people hated school and how their negative experiences have impacted on their adult lives.

"I was made to feel thick" - Some people felt that they had been labelled as "thick", and carried this with them into adulthood

"It was prison to me" - The school environment was oppressive and too restrictive for some, who couldn't wait to leave.

Bullying - This is a serious issue which adversely affects many people's learning experiences.

Pressure to pass exams - The fear of exams, and of having to perform well in an exam situation, permeated some people's time at school.

"I was made to feel thick" - When teachers and other school staff were unsupportive of pupils, or did not encourage children to work to the best of their abilities, they were left feeling "thick". On many occasions this could have been avoided by staff taking into account different pupils' learning styles and differentiating the teaching according to the range of ability and skills levels they were teaching.

But sometimes people said they were left feeling disregarded because they were not at the top of the class academically:

"I didn't like it at senior school because the teachers were horrible. If you weren't one of them at the top of the class, which I wasn't, they didn't want to know. And I didn't go to school after that, after my first year at seniors I didn't go...because the teachers would pick on the kids that weren't bright, the kids would do it as well."

So for this individual, being ostracised by both staff and fellow pupils meant that she did not continue with her schooling, and has been left without any qualifications. Whilst this was not a problem for her in the past, as she was content to do unskilled work, after raising a family she has decided that she would like to do a 'better' job and is studying in order to make this happen.

But the legacy of feeling "thick" has had a negative effect on how this person perceives herself; when describing how she felt on an introductory admin course, she said she "felt a bit thick" and when explaining why she wants to do a Maths and English course, she says:

"So I can help my kids. I just want to help them learn. I feel thick."

It is positive that this person has been able to overcome her past enough to engage in learning as an adult, as many others have done, but it is a sad fact that, for those who were labelled as "thick" when they were at school, they have a huge hurdle to overcome if they are going to participate in learning as an adult and it often takes time.

One example of this is someone who was given inconsiderate careers advice, which affected the choices they made when the left school:

"...they said to me, don't bother going to college because you are not intelligent enough. Go and get yourself a job in a shop or something, so that's what I did and sort of left school thinking I was a total dunce."

Thankfully they did re-engage with learning at a later date, but only after a long period of time:

"So it took me 10 years to sort of re-think it and think oh well, maybe I'll try college and I was great at college, so it just shows that what somebody says to an impressionable young person can have quite long reaching effects..."

"It was prison to me" - Some people found the structured, inflexible nature of school difficult to deal with. For some people it was the case that they simply had other things that they would rather have been doing.

"I hated school, it interfered with my life; there’s lots of other things I would sooner be doing than go to school, you know like playing football." 

But for others, the whole school environment was detestable and made them feel imprisoned:

"I just hated it.  It was prison to me.  I used to look out the window and think, by God, just to be out there... And I could have wept the day I heard they was knocking it down, because they didn't tell me but I would've been the first to take a swing at it, that went about ten year ago, I'd have still knocked the damn thing down.  I hated every second. It wasn't the cane, we used to get caned nearly ever damned day of the week.  I don't think a lad should start school until he's about thirteen or fourteen, when he's more of a reasonable age to start thinking and, coz you've got too much going on in your brain.  You want to be out there."

For this particular individual, he was not put off learning for life - he simply hated the structured, oppressive environment of school as a child and wanted to be learning in a more active, participatory way. As an adult, he feels that he has learnt far more than when he was in compulsory education, because he has chosen what and where he wanted to learn.

Having had several different careers, and studied a number of subjects which interest him, the freedom of being an adult has enabled him to learn in the ways he wants to. His preferred ways of learning are learning from others, through conversation, and as the majority of his friends are lecturers and experts in their subjects, he has a very effective way of doing this.

Although his fiercely negative experiences at school have not pout him off learning itself, they have affected his career choices. When offered a job as a tutor in a prison, he could not accept the position because the environment reminded him so much of school. 

"I actually went for a post there a few years ago, of teaching, and I went into Hull Jail, well of course as I walked in the doors went clunk, clunk behind me and I thought no way. When they said would you like the job, I told them where they could stick it! I said this just reminds me of being back at school, 'what d'you mean?' he says, high walls, heavy doors, no way, no way." 

Bullying - This can be a highly destructive element to people's schooldays. Whilst a lot of people told us that they were bullied whilst a school, many of these were dismissive about it, saying that "it happens to everyone", or by comparing their experiences to other people's and claiming they didn't get it as bad as other classmates.

However, other people have told us about the horrific bullying that they suffered whilst at school. One 24 year old woman said she was bullied for 11 years, meaning her whole school career was tainted by it. As well as having to cope with being bullied, she had to deal with being dyslexic but having no support for this whilst at school - at the time of our interview with her, she had only recently been diagnosed. As a result of this, she said the idea of learning was "a scary thought".

Being bullied chips away at a person's self-esteem. People have told us that they were bullied because of having a disability, for their academic ability or lack of it, or for being quiet, amongst other things.

Pressure to pass exams - Many people told us that the pressure to pass exams was the element to schooling which they found the most difficult.

Some people generally enjoyed their time at school, only to have that enjoyment ruined when it came round to exams:

"I loved school.  Everyone thinks I’m daft for saying that but I loved school... the only thing that bothered me was the exams – I don’t like exams, I sit in that room and I think I have a panic attack and my mind goes blank, but apart from the exams then yeah I loved school..."

For others, the fear of having to perform well in exams permeated the whole of their secondary school experience, so much so that they talk about having enjoyed their primary and junior schools but not secondary school.

"I liked Primary school, but... I don’t think it made a difference to me that I went to school...The work and things like that, I don’t know, just, I don’t know, probably being frightened that you are not gonna pass all your exams, but I suppose from my point of view when I left school it han’t made a difference, you know, it han’t made a difference that I didn’t pass my GCSE’s and I worried about it in school. but it han’t really made a difference to me at all."

This interviewee was a young mum who was only just going back into education by attending classes at a women's centre. She was doing well at her computer courses, and is proof that people can have bad experiences at school and then go on to be successful learners in a different environment.

However, her school experiences had definitely influenced her choice of learning centre, as she was adamant that she would not want to learn in a college, but was happy to learn in the non-threatening, supportive setting of the women's centre. Whilst it is good that learning takes place at such community settings, there needs to be the provision for learners to be able to access learning at higher levels in mainstream settings somewhere down the line if they are to progress further with their learning.

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