Poll: What were you in school?

[SonnyJim]

I was at a 5th grade band concert tonight, looked at the parents in the room and wondered if there was any correlaton to school experience and desire to ER. The band director mentioned that band members tend to score higher on standardized tests. Let's see where the poll leads us?

 

[Culture]

You forgot a few, based on my experience:

Multiple Choice (I was a Jock-Nerd, if such a thing can be said to exist)
Freaks/Heads (The Druggies)
Goat Ropers (The Urban Cowboys)

What other categories were missed?

 

[Brat]

There is a high correlation between math and music skills. I think a music education enables the capacity to see patterns.

 

[OAG]

Need to change (expand the poll) as there is a need for a "Dropped out" response. May cover more than a few........

 

[gandalf42]

I was somewhere between a freak and a rebel (neither category listed).
(Hard to imagine I became a geek: engineer)

For young folks you would have to include Goths and Skaters.

 

[sgeeeee]

a student.

All of the above at various times.

 

[FinanceDude]

I was a "band jock".............

 

[SonnyJim]

I made some of the requested changes. I guess that most of us are trying to remain invisible with our ER plans and we learned this at an early age. Not what I expected, but interesting.

Like George Soros' Alchemy of Finance where learning about the psychology of the market was the prize, perhaps there is an Alchemy of Early Retirement in one of you writer types.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

There is a high correlation between math and music skills. I think a music education enables the capacity to see patterns.

I always had excellent math / logic / spatial reasoning scores, but all attempts at
mastering musical instuments were dismal. I think you need some kind of manual
dexterity divisor in there - that would certainly explain it for me.

 

[Meadbh]

I was a boring nerd. Loved math, took music because mom & dad insisted.

 

[OKLibrarian]

Band geek, but more geek than band.

 

[Helen]

I was the school dyke in the 70's. I was out to everyone but myself

 

[Outtahere]

I looked like a druggie/freak cuz I dressed like a hippie ...but I was so shy that I didn't talk much so ppl thought I was stoned all the time, in reality I was 100% straight and an above average student. The few good friends I had knew the real me, the others I didn't care what they thought, kinda feel the same way today

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

i was a pot smoking, booze drinking, mostly straight "a" student (couple of b's, ooops). i guess that makes me a geek freak.

 

[rmark]

I was mostly invisible, not hard in a high school with a graduating class of about 600. Shunned by the jocks, ate lunch with assorted goat ropers, freaks or band geeks.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Absent a lot.

 

[donheff]

I chose druggie because I probably would have been if I had been in HS a few years later (graduated in 66). Like CFB I missed a lot of class. A girl in one of my classes called in as my mother and wrote my excuses -- the school never saw a real note from my mother the entire time I was there.

 

[Buckeye]

I was the women's scholar athlete award winner for my graduating class but the emphasis was definitely on the scholar.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

A girl in one of my classes called in as my mother and wrote my excuses -- the school never saw a real note from my mother the entire time I was there.

we did something similar for getting booze. when we needed a case or more for a party we'd set up in one of our houses with the parents away. one of the girls would go into the shower and when the delivery guy came she'd yell down for one of our youngest looking friends to give the delivery guy the money. worked every time even though we were ordering the likes of boonesfarm apple wine and strawberry hill.

 

[kramer]

I did not do any homework after the sixth grade (not kidding). I was shy and uninvolved in most of my classes. I started skipping school often in my senior year, and begged my parents to take the equivalency exam so that I could graduate right away. So I marked "invisible"

I took five years off between high school and college, partly to grow up. Most of that time I was just as disengaged.

In college I was totally different and was engaged and finished at the top of my class.

I am a totally different person now than I was as a teenager and early 20s.

Sometimes I recount my story to parents that are having a difficult time with their kids. There is always hope.

Kramer

 

[Tracker]

I voted "invisible".........

Interesting, I noticed that a lot of the people voted for invisible. We probably all weren't, just self-conscious? Maybe it was a teenage thing. Maybe everyone feels that way..............I digress....... 8)

My high school was private so there was a lot of money and hoopla. My parents did not have a lot of extra money and the whole environment was intimidating to me . To my parents disappointment, I dated someone from the local public high school and hung out with a lot of people from the public high school who lived in my neighborhood.

I never studied or even took a book home. However, I did well enough to get to college so I didn't care.

I don't have many memories from my high school that are good or bad. I was just "there".

 

[Orchidflower]

Since I was the "whipping boy" at home, the atmosphere was too tense for me to really concentrate. Hard to concentrate when you are always getting berated for something.
Regardless, it was apparent that I had a high i.q., so I was that kid that the teachers always called my mother to say, "She's so smart, but she won't pick up a book." I am sure they were totally frustrated with me, and I don't blame them.
The teachers had no idea until the last semester of my Senior year why I was so distracted. Luckily, I thrived once I got out at 19 on my own.
However, I worked after school about 25 hours a week and paid for my own things. And I had plenty of boys chasing me, alot of girlfriends, was asked to all the parties and events, was a Homecoming candidate, was active in a number of clubs despite working so much (I had lots of home duties, also) etc. Socially I did A plus.
Yes, I did finally go back and finish college at 29.
Anyway, today I say that my high school experience was spent on career development, since I went into sales and talked all the time in class. Guess the teachers wouldn't think that was very funny yet, tho.
You don't have this category, but I would have to say during high school that I would be the underachiever! I see lots of guys on this board said the same thing. Guess you were the guys sitting next to me in detention.

 

[Orchidflower]

One thing I have noticed over the years when talking to others who underachieved in high school: Most are so embarrassed and disappointed in themselves for not studying and being an underachiever that, once out on their own, at some point they start burning rubber trying to make up the time they lost...and end doing very well then. Am I the only one who has observed this? I know quite a few like this, myself.

 

[Keim]

To bad we couldn't check multiple. Depending on the year, I fit several categories. Checked band member, but could fit geek or class clown...

 

[Andre1969]

One thing I have noticed over the years when talking to others who underachieved in high school: Most are so embarrassed and disappointed in themselves for not studying and being an underachiever that, once out on their own, at some point they start burning rubber trying to make up the time they lost...and end doing very well then.

Two of my best friends in high school were like this. Both of 'em were slackers and underachievers. Heck, one of 'em practically gave up his senior year. We were in something called a "Science and Tech" program that was for the supposedly gifted people. We had to do something called a "research practicum" our senior year, and I remember my one buddy just didn't bother. I remember for my project, I tested out the flammability of various types of wall paneling, which was kinda fun. Even if wall paneling was kinda passe' by the late 80's.

Anyway, that guy ended up doing pretty well in college, and the last I saw him, he was an engineer at an aerospace company. Last time I saw him was 1999 though, so I dunno what he's up to these days.

My other friend ended up totally muffing up in college. He also had an overbearing father and pain in the rear stepmother. They were turning him into a submissive, spineless shell of himself. He finally got fed up with them the summer after his freshman year in college and walked out. I let him stay with me, and because of that, his parents blamed me as a bad influence and, once he went back home, they forbade him to ever hang out with me again. Soon after that, we had a falling out, over other things, and he dropped out of school soon after.

I found out a few years later from a mutual friend that he was gay, and I think that actually explained a lot. Looking back, I imagine my buddy was probably really frustrated and confused, trying to figure out just what he was. And I know full-well his parents would have banged him over the head with a Bible until he either "saw the evil of his ways" or died from internal bleeding, so he was probably heading for a self-destruct mode.

I thought about him though, and tracked him down about a year or so ago through classmates.com or one of those sites. Turns out he's out west somewhere, been with his significant other for about 10 years, got a good accounting job that he really likes, and seems to be doing really well for himself. I told him if he's ever out this way to look me up, but he pretty much cut all ties with his family, and there's just too many bad memories back this way, so there's really not much reason for him to come back this way. Sad that his family pushed him to the breaking point and he had to cut all ties with them, but with some families that's what you have to do. I'm glad for him though, that life's finally working out for him.