My highschool experience

After reading “The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher” by John Taylor Gatto, I thought about my own high school experience and what it taught me. I did not fit into the high-school system. One quote from Gatto’s article that really struck me was, “Individuality is a contradiction of class theory, a curse to all systems of classifications.” I definitely felt this way in high school and struggled to assert my individuality in a setting where I was constantly told to conform to the norm. The norm was being excited about Friday night football games, being peppy at the Pep rally, memorizing facts so I could spit them out the next day and being happy to do it. In order to assert some individuality I wore strange outfits, cut my hair very short and dyed it black, smoked cigarettes in the bathroom, blatantly read books on Buddhism or books of poetry in class when I should have been taking notes or doing a Chemistry assignment. I spent a few Saturdays in “Saturday school.” I think I was trying let people know that I was different, that I thought about things differently. I couldn’t wait to get out of high school and was ready to be done with the whole education thing altogether. Luckily, my dad gave me a choice that made it very easy to decide to go on to college. Upon graduating, I had not applied to colleges; I hadn’t even thought about going to college, but my dad told me that either I needed to a) go to college, or b) move out of the house. Well, ummm, I think I give this college thing a try. Since I hadn’t done very well in high school and hadn’t planned to go to college, my options were limited. I went to the local community college, and it was one of the best decisions of my life. I felt like I finally had control over what I studied and how I studied. I had control over my own life, and I could succeed or I could fail. Most importantly, I could be seen as an individual with thoughts and feelings. I saw myself as intelligent, and I chose to excel. Some people look down on community college, but for me it gave me the opportunity to think about my life and get myself together as I prepared for the next phase of my life.