I love school, and I love learning, but I've found that some of the most pertinent life-lessons I've learned did not come in class. I'm talking about things you learned in the playground, the courtyard, or from your friends (or possibly even your enemies). =) They can be meaningful lessons, harsh realities of life, or just funny things that happened to you. It's all good here.
One of the lessons that stuck with me most after attending an elitist, conservative, all-girls private school, and then switching to one of the poorest schools in my area, is that rich people are bigger thieves than poor people. Seriously, my first school was so rich that the Prime Minister's daughter enrolled there, but there was an epidemic of kleptomania there. You couldn't leave your backpack or locker unattended for five minutes without one of the girls there stealing your wallet, or, in higher grades, your cell phone. However, at the school I am at now, where no one has any money, people actually respect your property, and will always pay back a favour without fail. So, the lesson there was that social class and wealth is no indicator of whether someone is trustworthy.
Another thing I learned in school was how to hide shit. I'm usually well-behaved, but studying other kids was like getting free ninja lessons. I saw girls hiding earphones under their hair to listen to iPods in class. I've seen kids sneak into the bush to smoke and drink during school. And, beyond that, I learned how to hide my money so that the girls from my old school wouldn't steal my stuff. And that's just the stuff I knew about. I know kids can hide a lot worse than that as they get older. I even knew of a guy who dealt drugs at school to a friend of mine. oO And I'm a naive spoiled rich kid from the suburbs - I can't even imagine all the stuff that goes on that I'm oblivious to.
I'll think of others later, but I don't want to open my thread with a wall-o-text. So I'll throw the floor open to you here. What were some of the things you learned in school that weren't taught in class?
One of the lessons that stuck with me most after attending an elitist, conservative, all-girls private school, and then switching to one of the poorest schools in my area, is that rich people are bigger thieves than poor people. Seriously, my first school was so rich that the Prime Minister's daughter enrolled there, but there was an epidemic of kleptomania there. You couldn't leave your backpack or locker unattended for five minutes without one of the girls there stealing your wallet, or, in higher grades, your cell phone. However, at the school I am at now, where no one has any money, people actually respect your property, and will always pay back a favour without fail. So, the lesson there was that social class and wealth is no indicator of whether someone is trustworthy.
Another thing I learned in school was how to hide shit. I'm usually well-behaved, but studying other kids was like getting free ninja lessons. I saw girls hiding earphones under their hair to listen to iPods in class. I've seen kids sneak into the bush to smoke and drink during school. And, beyond that, I learned how to hide my money so that the girls from my old school wouldn't steal my stuff. And that's just the stuff I knew about. I know kids can hide a lot worse than that as they get older. I even knew of a guy who dealt drugs at school to a friend of mine. oO And I'm a naive spoiled rich kid from the suburbs - I can't even imagine all the stuff that goes on that I'm oblivious to.
I'll think of others later, but I don't want to open my thread with a wall-o-text. So I'll throw the floor open to you here. What were some of the things you learned in school that weren't taught in class?
