School...

A young friend of mine started Secondary School today for the first time, a big step in anyone's life. I remember my first day, and being split up from most of my friends into different ''form groups'' etc. I had nightmares about starting Secondary School when I was in Primary School (even as far back as Year 2). I remember one dream I had when I was little about Secondary School; it consisted of me being questioned sternly by a bullying teacher about the details of some subject which meant little or nothing at all to me, and I cried, and for the years leading up to starting school, my impression was that it would be impossibly difficult. In the event, quite the opposite proved true. Yes it was difficult, but not intellectually so (except at Mathematics; I was hopelessly bad at that!)

When I was in Year 6 in Primary School, a delegation came from a local Catholic secondary school of two teachers (I can only remember one, a woman of about 58 whose mother was apparently still alive), and they gave us a lengthy talk (I expect it was not ''lengthy,'' but perhaps holding the attention of an 11 year old for even 5 minutes is an ordeal) on Secondary School life. I had, of course, no notion of it. I only had what my mother and father had told me of what School was like for them. And so, when we were asked to submit any questions, I had a whole bunch of, confessedly, ridiculous questions to ask. One of them was whether we had to wear straw hats (my mother had to wear a straw hat during the Summer at her Convent school), whether we were going to be caned or given the slipper in punishment (again, my parents were so disciplined at school - I wonder whether corporal punishment actually ''corrects'' a child's behaviour; it certainly does not make one have much respect for a teacher, my mother said the feeling was more sullen fear than respect), and the last, which made the old woman laugh, was whether we had to wear a dunse's cap! The answers were of course no, no and no.

When I eventually started school, I was scared. I had told the Science teacher (in answer to his question about what former teachers thought of me) that I was a ''nuissance.'' At least I was honest though; that's what I told my mother when she told me off for saying so. As I said earlier, however, life at school was difficult. I found the subjects all a bit too easy, and some just not worth bothering with (such as P.E). I was bullied by some of the students (a group of older girls), who called me ''God-boy,'' but I didn't accept that with forbearance and humility. Since I have always been the sort of person that nobody bothers much about, the teachers didn't listen to my complaints, and so I began to treat them with contempt (which made the label ''God-boy'' somewhat ironic I guess). I wonder to what extent my Asperger Syndrome influenced my time at school? I certainly think I should have been exempt from P.E, and done something else worthwhile (such as another language); the P.E teachers hated me because I told them that they weren't real teachers and weren't very bright. I never quite saw the point of P.E...

But good luck to the children starting Secondary School this year. I started Secondary School about 10 years ago now, which is strange to relate, I'm getting old! I wish I had gone to a decent school though; I do remember asking my mother to go to Grammar school, but she said I wasn't bright enough to pass the 11 Plus.