Tuesday, May 22

Everything I learned, I learned when I left school...

Okay, I know it's considered very un-p.c. to tell this to teens, but it's true. Virtually everything I learned about writing and publishing, I learned once I was actually working in the biz. Which isn't to say you don't need to go to school. There's no way I would have landed my entry-level position at a publishing company without my Honors English degree. (These days, you probably need a Masters, or a post-grad Publishing certificate, which didn't exist when I was a student.) Thing is, I probably would have read most of what I read for my English degree on my own.

Going back to high school, I have to say the same applies. By my final year, my schedule was pretty much full up with various English courses, when I spent all my outside-of-school time reading, anyway.

Here's what high school was really good for:

Learning to apply makeup. (Thanks, Dawn.)

Learning who my 'people' were.

Confirming my suspicion that I wasn't a Math or Science person.

Getting exercise. (It was a very long walk to my school from my house.)

Learning I sucked at sports. (I impressed my Phys-Ed teacher only when his daughter started attending my ballet school and he saw me perform a solo on point at a show. He asked me to lead a warmup in Gym class the next day.)

Getting praise for my first stories and essays.

Refining my personal style. (I didn't want to wear label-laden popular girl wannabe clothes, nor did I want to dress too artsily/crazily....)

Refining my doodling skills.

Gathering material for future YA novels.


What did you guys learn at school???

Love ya,

Bev

10 comments:

Sara Hantz said...

I learned at school that you need to be a conformist if you want to get good reports, lol! Learned it, yes. Adhered to it, no. My reports were awful!!!

bevrosenbaum said...

Ha! Ditto!

Kelly (Lynn) Parra said...

I really owe my art experience to school...oh and all my teenage angst. haha! I swear, I had some of the worst and the best memories from school. And I agree it's been helping me tons with my YA stories!

GeminiWisdom said...

What I learned at school...

~ racism is alive and well (the first time was 6th grade, second time was round my sopohmore yr in high school)

~ Math sucks

~ so does Econ

~ Dance should be a required class to graduate

~ The right English teachers can be TOTALLY awesome

~ potential writing material for future YA books. LOL

Anonymous said...

Seeing as how it's my second go round at the high school thing (long story, not what you're thinking...read the intro on the blog), I'm learning two main things at the moment:

1) Charter schools ROCK! Especially the one I go to.

2) My school is like Sunnydale, but with the spawn of criminals instead of demons. Go figure.

bevrosenbaum said...

Kelly, were you an expert doodler, too?! Gemini, sadly, the racism thing is still going on. I totally agree about math sucking. Also about the English teachers, though, unfortunately, I always seemed to be stuck with the frustrated writers/performers who didn't seem to really like kids but didn't know what else to do with their English degrees. Draven, you def have to write a book or script about your school!!!

Anonymous said...

Since it was the sixties when I was in High School, racism was alive and well. It was the real deal, with no recourse of action. The world seemed to be going crazy with protests, riots and cities burning down around it all. All I got out of high school was hypocrisy. Wow, this really sounds glum…But when I think of high school this is what comes to mind first, sadly. But I did love my art classes, when my teacher let me really express myself, which was only on occasion. English I liked in my senior year, cool teacher. Other then, that, it wasn't a good experience, very confusing.

bevrosenbaum said...

Wow, Lee, your high school experience kinda puts everything in perspective...
Bev

Gerb said...

I thought I knew a lot in high school. I sometimes imagine I have a lot figured out now. But the more I learn, the more I 'get' that there is a whole lot more to learn. :) It's a good thing I love the process.

Maureen McGowan said...

Doodle skills were one of my major school accomplishments that has stood the test of time, too.