Como alguém sobrevive aos seus dias de escola?

H ow does anyone survive their schooldays? I mean, nearly everyone does, obviously, 4️⃣ but that doesn't mean it shouldn't count as one of life's great achievements. The happiest days of your life? For 4️⃣ some of us, maybe. For a few others, the worst of days. But for everyone, in their own way, they 4️⃣ are as challenging as anything adult life throws at you. I base this view on my own schooldays, my children's, 4️⃣ their friends', and the children of my friends. In nearly every case, the kids involved have been just fine, they've 4️⃣ done well, but I can't help feeling these successes are achieved against all odds.

O primeiro dia de escola

Day one is 4️⃣ monumental enough. My mummy dropped me off and left me with a bunch of children I didn't know, and a 4️⃣ nice lady called Mrs Timmins. Blimey, I thought, this is a big deal. I got through it, though. When my 4️⃣ mum picked me up to take me home for lunch, my little chest was puffed out with pride. I'd done 4️⃣ well, everyone said. But after lunch the bombshell was dropped that I'd be going back there for the afternoon. What? 4️⃣ And I'd be going back the following day, and the day after that, and every subsequent day for the foreseeable 4️⃣ future. This hadn't been made clear to me. I thought it was a one-time event to be brave about, like 4️⃣ a visit to the nurse for a jab, or a trip to a safari park. Nobody told me it was 4️⃣ a whole new way of life. I was outraged.

Encontrar-se bolao da quina um grupo de estranhos

Finding yourself in a group of strangers 4️⃣ is tough enough as an adult. How did we make our way through it when we were not long out 4️⃣ of nappies? It would be another decade before my schoolwork involved reading Lord of the Flies and by then, even 4️⃣ in the absence of fatalities, I knew what Golding was getting at.

A política do recreio pode ser selvagem

The politics of 4️⃣ the playground can be savage. You have a friend who's your best friend who decides someone else is their best 4️⃣ friend and doesn't want to play with you any more. Obviously, this kind of thing is standard, happens all the 4️⃣ time, but in that moment you can't know this – you're just a tiny kid feeling like it's the end 4️⃣ of the world. Somehow you dig deep into your young soul and find a way of coping. You have to. 4️⃣ And this is how we learn to be resilient. I get that. But that doesn't mean it's not hard.

Desafios massivos

And 4️⃣ over the next dozen years or more, these massive challenges come rolling in, day after day, week after week, term 4️⃣ after term. You don't understand what you're being taught. You keep getting bad marks. You struggle with homework. You want 4️⃣ to be cleverer than you are. You can't get in the school team for something. You're in a fight – 4️⃣ which is terrible, even if you win, and utterly shaming if you lose. Then there's all the nascent sexual politics 4️⃣ to navigate. You fancy someone. You get your friend to ask them out for you. Your friend returns with the 4️⃣ bad news. And soon everyone knows it. And these days, ye gods, whatever your bad news is, the whole world 4️⃣ might know it, thanks to social media. And all of the above stresses and strains will follow you home and 4️⃣ stick to you for ever.

Deixando a escola ou o colégio

Whenever I meet an 18-year-old leaving school or college, my first 4️⃣ thought isn't how their exams have gone or what they're doing next. I just want to know that they're OK, 4️⃣ that physically and mentally they're in one piece. If so, great, well done, onward. The rest of your life might, 4️⃣ comparatively, be less of a struggle than you've been led to believe.