6 ms·

(disclaimer: not a genious, iq 125) grade 0, first day, found name of classmate interesting as it was the same name as a character in a tale I liked, I remarked

by dusted 7y ago

(disclaimer: not a genious, iq 125) grade 0, first day, found name of classmate interesting as it was the same name as a character in a tale I liked, I remarked this, was told that it was cruel to "call people names", class was encouraged to find a "bad name" for me. grade 1, teacher used to enjoy holding me in front of the class, telling "this is [name], he thinks he's special, he likes attention" and have the other kids point and laugh at me before starting class. Was evaluated by psychologist, I remember I was given stupid puzzles, the kind you played with in kindergarten, asking me to complete them, I was offended by this and refused, she pushed me and I did a few before breaking down from being treated like an imbecile. Test showed I was probably not. grade 3, handed in assignment in basic, we were supposed to write a story, and I wrote a small program with arrays of words, and arrays of indexes to print the story.. Teacher told me it didn't count to "write some hieroglyphs", I told he it was a program, she explained to me "it's not possible to just make a program". These set the tone of my further education. Still working to get past those (and so many more) events. I still feel like I'm worthless. Thanks school! I still got to be a software developer though.

chadcmulligan 7y ago
School is very much the case of "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down", be thankful you didn't have nuns or christian brothers.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
derp_dee_derp 7y ago
> grade 3, handed in assignment in basic, we were supposed to write a story, and I wrote a small program with arrays of words, and arrays of indexes to print the story.. Teacher told me it didn't count to "write some hieroglyphs", I told he it was a program, she explained to me "it's not possible to just make a program". yeah, i'm with the teacher on this one. you didn't complete the assignment. At grade 3, a lot of the value in homework is simply in learning how to do homework correctly. You didn't do the homework correctly, so it absolutley shouldn't have counted to "write some hieroglyphs".
- mikeash 7y ago
  The teacher was correct to reject the work. The teacher was horribly wrong to belittle and criticize the work from a position of ignorance.
- dusted 7y ago
  Well, she told us to write it down, not how, she could have asked me to run and print it instead. At that age, I still had a sense of wonder about the world, and I thought exploring it was why we were here. I didn't understand that conforming was more important that exploring, but I understand that now.
  - camjohnson26 7y ago
    There’s a time and a place for both. If you’re going through security at the airport, conform. If you’re learning something in your free-time, explore.
- wolfgke 7y ago
  > At grade 3, a lot of the value in homework is simply in learning how to do homework correctly. In other words: turning the respective pupil into a virtuously working machine.
jcon321 7y ago
Why do programmers have a hard time writing coherent complete sentences?
- dusted 7y ago
  It might be because we were sent out of class so often? Also, while it is no excuse, English is my second language, and I did poor in school as explained before. I also admit that my focus was on sharing something I've not shared before, which I've found difficult to share before.
- philtar 7y ago
  I = 1 I is 1 The variable I is storing the number 1. They all mean the same thing. Programmers were taught that the first one is best. Because it is accurate and concise. What you call coherence introduces the risk of misunderstanding.
dangerface 7y ago
This echos my experience of school the only thing they ever tried to teach me was to conform. Like you I was no genius but I guess the nail that sticks out gets the hammer.
ptah 7y ago
yes, i think most of the depression and anguish comes from experiences like this
wazoox 7y ago
Ah yeah. In pre-school the teacher told a story about some nasty blue whale that was about to eat some poor castaway with "its big teeth" and I said "but Teacher, blue whales have no teeth, they have baleen hair". She became more and more hostile after that. After some more drama, I skipped a class directly to first grade. Fortunately the teacher wasn't stupid, and as I could perfectly read and write and knew everything I was supposed to learn before Christmas, I spent the rest of the year reading books in the back of the classroom. My main problem always was that I never, ever needed a single effort and never learned anything at school, up until University. So I never worked and just passed because it was all so easy and boring. So I never learned to work and every teacher (and parents) always enraged because I could have had so much better grades but why bother?

by dusted 7y ago

chadcmulligan 7y ago

School is very much the case of "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down", be thankful you didn't have nuns or christian brothers.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

derp_dee_derp 7y ago

> grade 3, handed in assignment in basic, we were supposed to write a story, and I wrote a small program with arrays of words, and arrays of indexes to print the story.. Teacher told me it didn't count to "write some hieroglyphs", I told he it was a program, she explained to me "it's not possible to just make a program". yeah, i'm with the teacher on this one. you didn't complete the assignment. At grade 3, a lot of the value in homework is simply in learning how to do homework correctly. You didn't do the homework correctly, so it absolutley shouldn't have counted to "write some hieroglyphs".

mikeash 7y ago
The teacher was correct to reject the work. The teacher was horribly wrong to belittle and criticize the work from a position of ignorance.
dusted 7y ago
Well, she told us to write it down, not how, she could have asked me to run and print it instead. At that age, I still had a sense of wonder about the world, and I thought exploring it was why we were here. I didn't understand that conforming was more important that exploring, but I understand that now.
- camjohnson26 7y ago
  There’s a time and a place for both. If you’re going through security at the airport, conform. If you’re learning something in your free-time, explore.
wolfgke 7y ago
> At grade 3, a lot of the value in homework is simply in learning how to do homework correctly. In other words: turning the respective pupil into a virtuously working machine.

jcon321 7y ago

Why do programmers have a hard time writing coherent complete sentences?

dusted 7y ago
It might be because we were sent out of class so often? Also, while it is no excuse, English is my second language, and I did poor in school as explained before. I also admit that my focus was on sharing something I've not shared before, which I've found difficult to share before.
philtar 7y ago
I = 1 I is 1 The variable I is storing the number 1. They all mean the same thing. Programmers were taught that the first one is best. Because it is accurate and concise. What you call coherence introduces the risk of misunderstanding.

dangerface 7y ago

This echos my experience of school the only thing they ever tried to teach me was to conform. Like you I was no genius but I guess the nail that sticks out gets the hammer.

ptah 7y ago

yes, i think most of the depression and anguish comes from experiences like this

wazoox 7y ago

Ah yeah. In pre-school the teacher told a story about some nasty blue whale that was about to eat some poor castaway with "its big teeth" and I said "but Teacher, blue whales have no teeth, they have baleen hair". She became more and more hostile after that. After some more drama, I skipped a class directly to first grade. Fortunately the teacher wasn't stupid, and as I could perfectly read and write and knew everything I was supposed to learn before Christmas, I spent the rest of the year reading books in the back of the classroom. My main problem always was that I never, ever needed a single effort and never learned anything at school, up until University. So I never worked and just passed because it was all so easy and boring. So I never learned to work and every teacher (and parents) always enraged because I could have had so much better grades but why bother?