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What They Didn't Teach Me in School

I am sitting by a waterfall now. It is so healthy for me to be surrounded by nature, listening to the sound of water. They never taught me this in school. Here are more things they never taught me in school.

They didn't teach me to be forgiving. Sarah taught me this when she was 12 and she would say "It's okay, best friend."

They didn't teach me that I could learn more from children and teenagers than I could from adults.

They didn't teach me to take children and teenagers' feelings seriously.

They didn't teach me the importance of traveling.

They didn't teach me to walk away from people who were hurting me, invalidating me, mocking me, judging me, disapproving of me.

They didn't teach me to walk away from people who were trying to control me, who were pressuring me or manipulating me.

They didn't teach me to see when someone was trying to do any of these things. They never even mentioned any of these things.

Then didn't teach me the difference between deserved and undeserved guilt.

They didn't teach me about emotionally abusive mothers. Steff and Tatiana at 14, and Nicole Norris at 17, did.

They didn't teach me what invalidation is.

They didn't teach me how to live in a van.

They didn't teach me how to live simply.

They didn't teach me what was really important in life and what was unnecessary.

They didn't teach me anything about the writing of Henry David Thoreau.

They didn't teach me much, if anything, about Gandhi.

They didn't teach me anything about Buddhism, Hinduism or any of the world's non-Christian belief systems.

They didn't teach me anything about the writing of Nathaniel Branden, or Alice Miller or Wayne Dyer or David Burns

They didn't teach me anything about the writing of Norman Vincent Peale or Hermann Hesse or Leo Buscaglia or Haim Ginott

They taught me nothing about the writing of Erich Fromm and almost nothing about the writing of Abraham Maslow

They didn't teach me anything about personal growth and self-help literature.

They didn't teach me anything about Frederick Douglas.

They didn't teach me to know myself.

They didn't teach me to identify my emotional needs.

They didn't teach me to believe in myself.

They didn't teach me to understand how my family was hurting me and using me to try to fill their unmet emotional needs.

They didn't teach me the names of my feelings.

They didn't teach me how to express my feelings with feeling words.

They didn't teach me anything about emotional literacy.

They didn't teach me that we are each primarily responsible for our own feelings and we have more control over them than most people realize.

They didn't teach me that it is healthy for me to write.

They didn't teach me anything about depression or why a teenager would want to kill themselves or cut themselves.

They didn't teach me how to listen.

They didn't teach me how to show understanding.

They didn't teach me anything about compassion.

They didn't teach me how to silently hug a crying child.

They didn't teach me that there is already too much competition in the world.

They didn't teach me to see the many ways people distract themselves and numb themselves from their feelings.

They didn't teach me the difference between fear and respect or respect and obedience.

They didn't teach me that making "good" grades doesn´t make someone a good person.

They didn't teach me to think about the difference between a good "Christian", (or a good "Muslim", "Jew" etc) and a good human being.

They didn't teach me that patriotism is not good for the world.

They didn't teach me that the word "good" is a very subjective word.

They didn't teach me about the messages in songs like John Lennon's "Imagine"

They didn't teach me anything at all about children of alcoholics.

They didn't teach me anything about emotional, verbal or psychological abuse.

They didn't teach me that people will try to use you in all kinds of ways, and that if you obey these people long enough, there will be nothing left of you.

They didn't teach me anything at all about love.

They didn't teach me that it feels good to help people.

They didn't teach me to follow my heart.

They didn't teach me that a hug is the answer.

 

 

S. Hein
Original list started January 26, 2005
Jaen, Peru


References

Invalidation

Listening

Henry David Thoreau

Nathaniel Branden

Alice Miller

Wayne Dyer

Hermann Hesse

Haim Ginott

Erich Fromm

Abraham Maslow

Emotional Needs

Frederick Douglas

Tatiana Dulgushina

Nicole Norris

Silent Hugs

David Burns

Norman Vincent Peale

Gandhi

Leo Buscaglia


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what i didn't learn in school

things they didn't teach me in school

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