Member-only story
EDUCATION
I Went Back to School After 33 Years
And it still sucked
At the end of our first year at Comprehensive School my best friend won the First Year Achievement Award.
Up to the point it was announced at a parents’ evening near the end of term, we had no idea the award even existed.
Now that we knew about it, it became a friendly competition between us as I determined to win the award next year.
By the end of the third year, it was clear this wasn’t an annual thing. There were no more awards.
Still, I’d always done well at school without really trying and this early impetus in senior school had set me on a trajectory for success.
I sailed through my O Levels and started the Sixth Form fully intent on going to university after I sat my A Levels.
By this time, though, the wider world was starting to become more interesting than what we were learning at school and over the course of that two-year study for my A Levels, I became increasingly focused on other priorities.
I started to suspect that the most important changes needed in society weren’t being taught in the education system.
I also realised that the teachers were mostly dicks.
