Why do I hate school so much?

I hate it when people who know nothing about me or my past assume I learned anything from school. I studied until the Master’s, but nothing I do is an application of anything learned in school – not even language. I learned the English language thanks to my father’s library and American movies watched from a home VHS since birth, not school. Yes, I did well in school, even excelled and beat everyone most times, but I did that because I figured out how to pass, not because I supplied my knowledge. School has got its rules, and it rewards those who follow those rules. Usually, these aren’t the most knowledgeable people. Almost everything I knew in school was learned at home, and I’m not talking about homework – I mean independent studies and a habit of reading derived from my parents’ training. And despite knowing, I failed woefully whenever I applied that knowledge.

However, whenever I told the teacher what he/she wanted to hear, that’s when I succeeded. That’s how it’s with everyone no matter how much we think otherwise. But it probably takes someone who’s got the knowledge without following the rules to understand this, so I won’t blame you if you disagree. We all had that one extremely creative friend who always repeated every class and never even passed the GCE; that one friend who could play every sport well and could draw geometric shapes with accuracy, and imagine the best jokes – but failed because they couldn’t put together subject-verb-complement. Sometimes, teachers labeled them as retards. Some of them became Eto’o and Mboma and Justin Beiber and Einsten (yes, Einstein) BTW. I am a terrible scholar.

 

I was every teacher’s favorite student because I displayed knowledge in class, but I always failed their exams. I learned French in two weeks at home after going through class 1 to form 5 without knowing how to construct a single sentence, and I consequently became arguably the best French writer in high school, loved and trusted by all teachers, feared and admired by all friends, but GCE A’ Level results told me I was bottom of the class. I was one of the best English Language writers and speakers since class 1, ask my secondary school friends how many times they suspected the “English Madames” had a crush on me, but I failed English at the GCE O’ Levels and had a C at the second sitting. It’s same with every subject I master. I learn at home and I can DO, but I don’t always care about how the teachers want me to write. Currently, I lecture, and every time I grade students, the school slashes their marks – I don’t blame them, they don’t know my classrooms are factories, not slave depots.

My point is, it’s in school’s nature to give high grades to those who follow the rules, not those who can actually do. I’ve always hated school. I skipped classes always, scaled the fence until lower sixth and dropped out when I got the chance Whatever I am or will ever be will never be due to any contribution from school. If school really contributed to growth in my life, I will either be working for 90k a month somewhere like my friends are, which isn’t even growth, or I will be abroad seeking greener pastures. It’s not the system, it’s school from its definition. Unless school moves from a public building to the farm and the garage and the factory and the assembly plant, school will always be school, a.k.a. useless. I’m a factory worker, not a scholar. It’s extremely insulting to undermine my personal efforts at self-education and attribute everything to institutions which constantly labelled me a rebel. This attribution is one of the biggest reasons why I hate the idea of school.

P.S. For the scholars reading this about to make an argument from a misunderstanding of expressions, I said I hate school, not education. I’ll repeat this over and over before it sinks into your thick skulls.??

By Cedric Che.