What were your high school years like? Would you relive them---or not?--Al

-- Al Schroeder (al.schroeder@nashville.com), November 13, 1999

Answers

Definitely NOT.---Al.

-- Al Schroeder (al.schroeder@nashville.com), November 13, 1999.

Sharman and Magnus: I hate you both.

JUST KIDDING! (And a little envious, too.)--Al

-- Al Schroeder (al.schroeder@nashville.com), November 14, 1999.

Wonderful, just wonderful. Firstly, I moved out from home, where I had always been the small, the weak, the stupid. A few months later came the Awakening of my spirit, and a whole new kind of confidence. Luckily I had moved to a right-wing area, where people were into academic excellence rather than sports prowess. So I was accepted and even respected. I became a natural center of gravity in school politics and religion. And I was all alone among them all the time. But this was by choice, as I found the humans' interests petty and boring. I tried to fall in love, but could not. Only a generation too late did I find someone who could come inside my bubble of solitude. But I've always loved my own company. And my own voice, obviously: Perhaps I should write a journal entry instead...

-- Magnus Itland (itlandm@online.no), November 14, 1999.

I loved my high school years, in the sixties, more than mere words could express. I was the girl who had everything.. popular, clever, sporty, attractive, liked by the teachers, good family, and few hangups. Only trouble was.. that left me completely unprepared for the real world, after school finished. I had to learn how to lie, cheat, cover-up, fight, argue, be stoic, not be a victim, trick, manipulate, and all those other skills much-needed to survive in the hostile, competitive, unfair adult world we live in. At least at school the teachers protected me, so I could continue to "do the right thing" and be successful, honestly. After school, there was no- one to protect my attempts at honesty, and I had no skills to cope with what I faced. The other kids at school, meanwhile, had been forced to acquire those skills, in order to explain to the teacher why they had not done their homework, and in order to secure an invite to a popular person's party, in order not to feel too hurt when laughed at for not being good at sport.. etc.

So.. I would not go back and relive high school. If I went back, I would deliberately not do all my homework.. I might then learn something a whole lot more useful!

-- Sharman (sharmanl@yahoo.com), November 14, 1999.

Having been identified as gifted at a time when the research was saying 'accelerating kids wrecks them emotionally', I was sent to a school that wasn't academic-focussed which was pretty much the only thing I was good at. I'd like to meet the "me" who WAS allowed to be academic and excell that way and see how she turned out...

-- Bek Oberin (gossamer@tertius.net.au), November 14, 1999.