School dinners, albeit this was only a problem at the primary school I attended between age 7 and 11 which tended towards the "you're not leaving the room until you've eaten everything on your plate" rule.
Having to hold hands in dancing lessons, as most of my fellow pupils had nasty sweaty hands.
Being left out whenever the teacher uttered the dreaded instruction "find yourself a partner" or "get into little groups".
Being picked last for teams.
Being forced to play netball during winter in short-sleeved aertex shirts and gym knickers whilst the teacher was allowed to wear puffa jacket, scarf, gloves etc.
Rounders. WTF are the rules of that stupid game? The only good aspect I can remember was that at the aforementioned primary school we got bussed to Hampstead Heath for our lessons, where I could while away my time deep-fielding by making daisy chains or identifying woody nightshade in the hedgerows.
Getting into trouble for forgetting to bring the right textbooks, stationery etc to classes or leaving it behind on the train - and being mercilessly piss-taken by the rest of my family who presumably thought this shaming approach would do me good.
Overhearing my classmates talking about the parties they'd been to last weekend. If I ever asked (in the politest way possible) how I could be invited, I got the cryptic response "You don't get invited to parties, you just go!" Total lack of sympathy from my parents who told me that good exam results were more important than a social life, notwithstanding that all the academic high-fliers I knew (including my brother) managed to have both.
I never had any sex education, unless you count the Tampax nurse and a run-through of human reproduction towards the end of the GCSE combined science course. I gather these days it's called sex and relationships education (SRE for short). I'd have been quite interested to have learnt something about relationships, assuming that it is something that can be taught.
Has anyone here (from the UK) taken part in
Young Enterprise? The idea behind this is that pupils in Year 12 (equivalent to 11th grade in the US) set up pretend companies, sell stuff around school, recruit shareholders, wind up the company by the summer term and then go on to pitch their company at the regional or national finals if they're really dedicated. My school were really big on it, with typically three YE companies set up each year and quite a few prize-winners resulting from them. I must admit I was initially intrigued as to how this worked, but then in Year 11 we were treated to a inside account of YE by a girl in the year above and I was put right off. I remember she said "You'll spend the best part of the first half of the autumn term arguing about what your product is going to be ... you really discover who your real friends are." Looking back I wonder (as so often) what difference it would have made if I'd been diagnosed then and had a support worker - could/would she have helped me take part in Young Enterprise or would she have just said "Oh if you don't like the sound of it you don't have to".
I didn't appreciate this at the time, but later I really resented the fact that my school didn't prepare me for the workplace. Their attitude was "You're all going to university so you won't need careers advice for a few years yet". Little did I know how difficult it would be to find work experience during my university vacations with a career history of sweet FA.
