I feel like I would make use of it more if I could do it again. Maybe that’s weird, I don’t know.
Edit; To ask more of a question. What would you do differently?
For me it comes down to: knowing what I do now about myself, would I go back and change things?
School sucked. Not only was it often boring and almost killed any enthusiasm I had for learning, but I was one of those kids who never really had to study to at least keep a B average, and it ended up hurting me in the long run. I was able to just coast through school and never developed the skills to study and for being able to fail and get better at something until after I had already given up on college because I had developed a fear of failure and if I couldn’t get things right on the first try, I would give up.
I guess I’d go back to start learning how to learn and not be afraid of failure earlier in my life, but there are other things I’d much rather go back for. I heard the word “transgender” for the first time when I was a college freshman. It wouldn’t be for another 10 years after that until I could start to really do anything with that information. So yes, I would go back, because I would love to have not spent the entirety of my teens and 20s kind of just existing day to day, going from work to home to work again.
Plus there’s so much good music I missed growing up that I would’ve loved to find when I was younger.
Regarding music: the concerts I missed out in haunt me!
You seem pretty similar to how I was in school. My way of revisiting that is understanding it now that I’m a teacher. I think it makes me way more effective. Not perfect but able to connect and engage students more as well as encourage them to not fear being challenged.
I used to train kids at their first job and used my experiences in a similar fashion to push them to try new things and go for what they want without fearing failure. I would always tell them, “The biggest difference between you and me is that I’ve been on this floating rock longer than you have, so here’s my experience and the results. Use that info however you want.” Kids should be allowed to make their own choices and mistakes, but be informed on their options as much as they can be so that they can do so safely.
Hell no
If I kept all my memories, 100%. I could achieve so much more by building off of what I’ve learnt in this lifetime.
No. School was awful.
Of course I would do it, if I could retain my current knowledge and use it to make tons of money. But I guess that is not the point of this question.
Oh, the horror! I think I did the best I possibly could, given the circumstances.
Yes. But I wish I could go back and experience a real education, in a real school. Instead of being homeschooled by a hardcore evangelical.
Really I wish I could experience the social aspect. I’ve managed to educate myself pretty sufficiently enough to function in society. People even seem impressed with how smart I am, and are shocked to hear I didn’t get a real education. But I can’t help but feel like being isolated for the first 18 years of my life left me severely, socially stunted.
No, I imagine I’d be twice as bored the second time around.
Depends on how you frame the question, also depends on how you define the schooling period.
Would one keep the knowledge? Would it be going back in time and having the same classmates, living the same experiences? I’d go back just to improve or strengthen my friendships, also I’d use the spare time to learn new things as opposed to those I used to be interested in.
I’d really really would backtrack my tertiary studies and get into my current field a lot earlier. So much wasted time…
It’d be nice to do the whole childhood over again but with parents who loved me.
With all my knowledge in tact? Hell yes! I’d keep all that bitcoin instead of spending tens of thousands of it (about £100) on Silk Road in uni.
The experience was torturous overall, but considering it’s basically time travel and I’d know everything about the future up to 2024, I think I’d do a lot better at everything a second time around. I’d be amazingly good at BASIC and Pascal when I was 7, and would definitely buy that Amiga C compiler this time. I’d be pretty bored with all the 8 and 16 but Sega games since I already played them but I’d also get an SNES, since I missed all that last time. School would be easy af, and i’d feel like a pervert dating middle and high school girls so might as well just test out and get a PhD when I was 12 or something.
Oh, the real question. What would I rather I did differently? I should have spent less time reading my own books and playing video games at home, and focused on the studies school wanted me to do so I could test out and just start taking university courses rather than stay in the slog of middle and high school. Socially it was awful and not sure what I could have done at the time. I ended up dropping out and getting a GED after 9th grade, and did great on the ACT, could have gotten scholarships, but decided to do self employment rather than go to college, which wasn’t a great plan overall due to the specifics of what I chose and what happened.
School? No. University: Maybe.
It’s never too late to learn things. Read some books, visit a library and get the standard literature. It’s not as easy as if you were learning as a kid, because adults have other things to do and it’s difficult to muster up the time… But I still like to broaden my perspective and learn new things. And I admire people who are like 65 and choose to attend some university course or learn a new music instrument.
Turning back time isn’t an option. So think about what you actually want and go for it. There probably is a way if you really want to…
when i was about 10 or so we moved to a new neighborhood. obviously that meant exploring the new area, and making new friends. the first people i met in that area lived down the road from me. two of my new friends were brothers, one a bit older than the other, both several years older than me. they had a neighbor, who was my age, and we attended 3rd grade together.
the older brother was a bit wiser and kinder, the younger brother could be a bit bullheaded at times. when i was about 15, i left to live with my dad. those 5 or so years seemed so incredibly formative on my upbringing, for good or bad. around that time the younger brother died in a car wreck, and i really hadn’t spent much time with them since i moved away.
to this day, i remember something the older brother taught me, which was to try to learn something new everyday. you won’t always succeed, but it’s still important to try.
i’m 40. the amount of time i lived there was really only about 1/8th of my life. but i still try to learn something new everyday.
I can relate to that. It’s fascinating that even limited time with some people provides us with something lasting for life.
I think there is really quite some truth to it. We adults oftentimes are captured within our daily grind. And you have to pay attention.
What I always think about whenever this sort of question comes up is how it would be super awkward having an adult brain but having to interact with children as peers
That’s how I remember highschool being. I wouldn’t want to repeat it.
Elementary school was even worse, as I had almost zero agency. At least I was able to help my kids through that humiliating process where they often knew more than the teacher about a subject but still had to follow the learning process du jour.
I’ve always thought that school was more about learning how to interact with difficult people than about enriching personal knowledge. That bit happens at home if it happens at all.
The education is a no. Most of it would be boring as hell. Seriously, I’ve got little cousins and nieces and nephews and a kid of my own. The kind of shit they’re doing is so damn dull. It’s remedial once you’ve already done it once, and I can’t think of a worse way to spend a “do-over”
And the experience? Only if I’m allowed access to some serious weaponry. I’m not even joking. I’d fucking kill somebody if I had to deal with the sheer stupidity of most of the adults, and the pure sociopathy of the other kids. Kids are fucking animals with less manners, and more ways to indulge their proclivities. Being forced to deal with the bullshit of elementary school would be bad enough. But being forced to spend half or more of your waking hours with hormone ridden jackasses? Hell no. I wouldn’t subject myself to that now, unless the pay was waaaay better than it is.
If I want to revisit education, I’m not wasting time with the dross and bullshit. I’m going to do it on my own terms. I fucking well earned the time I have now that I’m disabled. Doesn’t matter what degree I could get, I couldn’t do a useful job. And there’s nothing in education below college level worth redoing. Certainly not at the price of having to do it in those schools.
Fuuck no! While there sure are thing I miss about my childhood and teenage years school isn’t one of those. School fucking sucked.
