Tales From Yet Another Burned Out Gifted Kid

Back when I was in elementary school I never needed to show my work in math, and my teachers handled that fact poorly. They didn't encourage me to show my work at all, they just let me create a habit that would bite me in the ass in my future. I loved those teachers, but I still can't help but hold some resentment for the fact that they let me get away with not showing work. Because when I began to struggle with math I didn't know how to show my work so the teachers could help me.
 
My high school had yearly career interest surveys we had to take, but these were majorly flawed. They never seemed to consider the idea that niche careers existed, they never mentioned that there are many options in the field that you were given, they just gave you the most generic careers and didn't give ideas for alternatives. This combined with the school system's neglect of the arts led to me being convinced that I was going to have o have a career I hated. The idea that art was a field and not a hobby never presented itself.
 
At school, the mantra was "get into college or you're a failure". I struggled with high school a bunch, and we all had that looming sense of that mantra, otherwise you will be "flipping burgers for a living".

In actuality, our society should be celebrating minimum wage workers and they deserve so much more compensation than they have currently, they have the most menial jobs but they are extremely essential for society. Whether you're a cashier, a fast food worker, or a garbage collector or a custodian/janitor, they're all necessary for society to function.
 
Ray Trace said:
At school, the mantra was "get into college or you're a failure". I struggled with high school a bunch, and we all had that looming sense of that mantra, otherwise you will be "flipping burgers for a living".

In actuality, our society should be celebrating minimum wage workers and they deserve so much more compensation than they have currently, they have the most menial jobs but they are extremely essential for society. Whether you're a cashier, a fast food worker, or a garbage collector or a custodian/janitor, they're all necessary for society to function.
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Yet another flaw with the school system, I never considered the idea of something like a trade school because school never even told me about their existence
 
School also never taught me about the existence of the post office, a huge and diverse career field that most people can actually get into and make a living off of. I'm not going to deny that it's glorious or anything (blue collared menial job to the max) but it's a viable career path that doesn't require a college degree.
 
I do online classes at home so I can just kind do whatever I want with jobs ad college and stuff, but my town's high school leans heavily into trades and work, but also sports. For example one day I almost got forced to do varsity golf out of the blue for the whole season, which is like hundreds of hours of practice and games lol. Heck the school even has its own car body shop. I don't really do anything at the school though as it has a bad reputation for having a lot of really bad students and my friends who go don't like it at all. Not as bad as the neighboring town's school at least they have cults of straight up satanist students 💀
 
You didn't mention any disability or living condition that could physically impair your activity, so I'm going to level with you a bit.

Burned-out "gifted" children are a dime a dozen. Everyone you'll ask on the internet is a radiant light bulb because they could solve a random math problem in fourth grade but, whaddyaknow, their genius was bridled when they were stumped by the other math problem in fifth grade. These people didn't get the memo that, in order to achieve excellence, life isn't exactly a cake walk. If one is truly able to contribute something to others, however small that contribution may be, they're gonna need to put some elbow grease and prove it.

Schools mishandle children all the time and pretty much everywhere. Where I come from, the educational system is a relic of a bygone era that's been further mutilated by incompetent entities into an extremely sad joke that treats students like a sort of informational dumpster without teaching them anything substantial, with perverse conditioning and punishments for those who don't fill the mould.

Doesn't take away from anyone's inherent responsibility to find the wrong in their own ways, discover their talents, and try to use them to not only bring society forward to their credit, but foster capable people and educate them on the reality of the matter. People who have pioneered fields and went leaps and bounds above others only did so by having the nerve and intuition to oppose the noxious norms--and while I can't hope to become a "pioneer" myself, it's certainly an outlook that proves so much healthier than "let me point fingers at my art teacher because they're clearly the source of all my issues". I endeavour to be led forward by the former.

Yours,
Someone who used to bitch endlessly about others' mistreatments and was so self-absorbed as to use those as a proxy for my own flaws.
 
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As someone with a physical disability (My hands are fucked up lol, I can't write well and it can give me cramps to write for too long) the school system has wronged me before. When I took the SAT they rushed me into the room to take the test, ignoring me when I said I needed to talk to someone about accommodations. I wound up taking the test on paper (My accommodations require me to have a digital copy available) They realized their fuck-up about 7/8 of the way through the test and pulled me aside to say that they had a digital copy available. By this point my hand was dead. I ended up finishing the test on paper. I later learned I technically could have sued them for this (and I wish I did)
 
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