Saved by the School

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I often hear people claim, even decades later, that junior high was the most horrible experience ever. I always hated school in general until about half way through high school and then didn’t really “like” it until I went off to college. So I always figured it was the low baseline I had already established that led me to not notice much of a difference between, say, third grade and seventh grade. But then I read this from Becks over at Unfogged:

I think middle schools are awful -- kids at that age are just horrible little creatures and putting them all together in an environment cut off from the rest of the world brings out the worst in them. My friends who went to K-8 schools had much better experiences and I think I would have preferred it.

Well, I went to a K-8 school. Maybe that explains it. I was spared the horrors of middle school because…I didn’t go to a middle school. Interesting. I also suspect it helped that I wasn’t a girl and that I already had a general disinterest in a large percentage of my classmates. Although I kind of regret that last part all these years later since those are people with whom I probably have way more in common than almost anyone else in the world.