Thinking of Leaving School.

Zhane

im really not injoying school, now i know its kinda normal for people to not like school but i HATE IT. Im 16, 17 in April and im in 5th year and i was wondering what my options would be if i did. Im just thinking about it now....i might stick it out but i just want to know my options before i drop the bomb on the parentals.

uberwolf

don't.

grin and bear it. Went through this with my bro last week, 2 hrs on phone with him. ur options are really limited and involve getting back into eduacation later having wasted yrs of ur life. AFAIK you can't even get apprenticeships without the leaving

Kold

Yeah, I hated school for the last 2 yrs, I'm lucky that I've moved to Bruce College for my last year. The thing you gotta realise that the person WITH a leaving cert has a lot more options than a person WITHOUT regardless of marks (although I'd advise you to put a minor effort in at least). Move school if that's what it takes to make a fresh start. uberwolf is absolutely right, if you drop out now you may want to redo it when you're older which is complicated and you'll have wasted so much time.

Pacifico

I went to bruce aswell. Worst years of my life.

you get through it though( Believe it or not! ). Just keep telling yourself youll get to college soon, Which is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better!!

ray900

Here's some slightly less politically correct advice. If you really hate school. And I mean REALLY hate it, to the point of wanting to be dead rather than stay, then leave school. But only if you feel that you have the drive and the "cop-on" to get ahead without the Leaving Cert. The idea that you will get nowhere in life without that ridiculous piece of paper is a myth, created by the boring old farts who believe that you should do everything in the "standard" way.

Some people are incredibly well educated, but totally incompetant and useless at getting on in life. Nomatter what the snobs say, a lack of a formal education does not make you an inferior person.

Kold

It doesn't but it does open a hell of a lot more doors

Tiesto

after going this far whats the point of dropping out now.

shabbyroad

im really not injoying school, now i know its kinda normal for people to not like school but i HATE IT. Im 16, 17 in April and im in 5th year and i was wondering what my options would be if i did. Im just thinking about it now....i might stick it out but i just want to know my options before i drop the bomb on the parentals.

To answer your question specifically : your options would be zero. Yes, the politically correct answer but the way this world works is that as far as anyone else is concerned you will have left school without even sitting your leaving cert.

Yes, it sucks. Yes, the system is phucked. Yes I'm glad I'm not back there (it's about 20 years now). Don't be a phucking martyr for the cause and don't let anyone else use you as one. You're not going to change anything by dropping out - you'll only screw yourself. This is about you and no-one else.

What specifically do you hate about school ? Tell us - it'll help us help you.

Here's a story that will illustrate what happened in my family :
My sister had the same chances in life that I had. She didn't stay in school - she was just as smart as me and could have done anything she wanted. She chose to leave school.
I didn't. Despite being bullied and realising that I was surrounded by some incredible losers (and that was just the teachers <joke>). I finished school and did college. I could not have done any of that without starting with the leaving cert.
Now my sister lives in a council house with her two kids and husband. She openly admits that she screwed up big time. There is no way in hell that she is going to ever own her own house or improve the quality of life for herself or her family (her husband is illiterate).
This contrasts with my life - I won't bore you with the details but it's a hell of a lot different.

No doubt you've got loads of people giving you advice. There's nothing worse than someone telling you it'll all be over soon when right now you want to run and get away as fast as possible. but here goes .....
it'll be over soon.

Yeah - the politically correct answer but for every person who "succeeds" (whatever that means) without those crappy pieces of paper there are hundreds who don't.
You don't need a leaving cert in maths to figure out the odds.

I used to teach btw and if you want to talk about this PM me. There are options for you - you'll just have to be a bit patient and put up with a bunch of crap for a while. You're almost there - don't screw it up now.

seamus

I think shabbyroad has said it all there, pretty much.

We've all been there. Everybody when in 5th or 6th year contemplates leaving school. It sucks feeling mature, but having no-one trust you and still having to conform to other people's rules. It sucks that there is so much pressure on you to do well, and that there are so many losers in your class who seem to get all the attention because they are good at something non-academic.

My God, school sucks big time.

But you're only young. 17? Pfft, drop in the ocean. What's another year and half compared to the rest of your life? You want to go and see the world now, I know what it's like, but patience. Once you finish school, you can do whatever you want. I'll say that again, whatever YOU want. If you leave now, you will find yourself massively limited. Going for a full-time job at 16/17, the first question you will get is "Why didn't you do your leaving?". What are you going to say? "I was bored"? "I didn't feel like it"? Whether it's true or not, a lot of potential employers will single you out as a waster, particularly if you have half decent Junior Cert results. If you want to go see the world, you'll be limited by your age. You're still underage in most western countries. 3rd world countries are no place for a lone teenager.

A year and a half is nothing to wait to go and do what you want to do. I'm 21, I've done a lot of stuff I'd always wanted to do, but I still have a hell of a lot of other things I want to do. If I had started a year earlier, it would have made very little difference to my current progress as a whole.

Patience young grasshopper, patience.

sci0x

I'm 17 and went though the exact same thing until i realised people spend about 15 years in school. After so much time what is another year. Even if you do badly, its better then leaving with nothing. Nothing to show after 15 bloody years. Stick with it, it wont be long goin.
Then do what i do, goto happy tree friends site and imagine the animals torturing themselves for our enjoyment are your teachers . Its a sure way to cheer yourself up .

**EDIT**
I think what would be best is for a person who did leave skool before their leaving to speak up and tell us how you got on.

KlodaX

Zhane

DON'T DO IT! ... my mate dropped out like 6 months before the leaving cert ... now shes back doin it.. she is 22 now.... I know 3 people who have done that...

I hated it .... seriously ... I made myself violently ill and managed to only have to do 5 months out of the 2 years... 5th and 6th... it was a great idea .. I recommend it...
try to kill yourself.. well don't actually... just pretend... then they'll think you have like mental problems .. ie sick ... and keep you indoors... or let you do whatever... as long as you are happy .. away from school... this isn't what I did btw.. but still .. it would work.

I scrapped a pass in the leaving ... did a plc course for a year .. got into college.. and now I've only 5 months left of a degree.

ONLY 5 MONTHS LEFT!?!?!?! THEN I'M FINISHED SCHOOL FOREVER!??!!?!?!?!?

... sorry ... didn't mean to rub in... just stressing a point.... the leavin cert is a load of bollox .. all you need to do is scrap a pass... this doesn't involve studying .. just go in on the days the exams are on and stay untill the end of every exam.... just write bull****... they mark you for it cause you tried... seriously...

just don't drop out... mitch alot ... or try the illness thing I mentioned.

best of luck

-KlodaX


... just one other thing... find a desk and make aload of ticks on it... days you have left... and scratch them of everytime you pass five... thats what they do in prison... I was doin this .. but then I sicked out ! .... my mate finished it for me

Sangre

That's possibly the worst I've advice I've ever heard.

Scrapped a pass in the LC?
Could have fooled me.

sci0x

yeah, just wondering a degree in what? Please let it have nothing to do with student councilling or anything!

shabbyroad

......insert tongue in cheek.......

away from school... this isn't what I did btw.. but still .. it would work.

do as I say.....don't do as I do ;-)

I scrapped a pass in the leaving ... did a plc course for a year .. got into college.. and now I've only 5 months left of a degree.
ONLY 5 MONTHS LEFT!?!?!?! THEN I'M FINISHED SCHOOL FOREVER!??!!?!?!?!?

Umm.. nope. Once you're doing something you're good at and enjoying you'll "go back to school"...you'll learn more.
you don't have to but if you do it'll be your choice.
As far as I have seen those who do ... do...
those who can't.... find excuses and complain....

....remove tongue from cheek......

I nominate KlodaX post for post of the month... let's face it it takes some balls to tell someone to mitch from school to succeed !

Try taking a year out and working full time in some shíte job for a year and see how fast you'll want to go back to school when faced with 2 choices:

1 - Doing that shíte job for the rest of your life with such great prospects as finally becoming manager of the rest of the drop outs

2 - finish school, then have fun in college, then get a job which actually looks attractive and promising(or if it's not you can rest assured that it will at least pay a helluva lot more than the shíte menial job)...



I hate when people say "you don't need the LC to succeed". Out of all the people I know who didn't finish the LC, only ONE will have a chance of amounting to anything, and that's only because his parents own a few shops and properties. 1 in a million will do well these days without the LC, you really can't compare them with people who dropped out of school years ago, because Ireland is a different place now.

KlodaX

I just thought Zhane may need alternative advise to that given by guidance councelors ... or don't advise... they regurgitate what you just said... and pending on how you act in secondary school is how they see you... not necessarily true to who you will be.

... the degree is in software development by the way...

I still think it was good advise .... I'm not a nerd .. *as you nicely pointed out Sangre*... and as weird of a method as it may seem... its worked for me.

either that or you could pick up a trade....
my alternative choice was hairdressing ... not a fan of manual labour ... so I took my own *bad* advise...

I still think it would/did work.

legit2

do as well as you can without getting too depressed. Try and stick it out if you leave now you will regret it. It is always harder to go back to school in later life and although there are people who have done very well without their LC I think there is probably more who have done badly because they lack that stupid piece of paper.

All the best

EL_Diablo

First figure out what you want to do with your life. If it's something that needs a degree/ similar college qualifications, then stick it out for the year and a half you have left. If you want to take up a trade and become an apprentice then all you need is a junior cert. If you want to find out what's available to you without a leaving cert then the best place I know of is Fas, or visit your local office. You don't need a leaving cert for any of their courses, and they can help you get an apprenticeship if that's what you want. But if you don't know what you want to do with your life I would say stay in school cos you don't wanna drop out and discover something you wanna do but be blocked by the lack of a leaving.
There are options there whether you stay or drop out it just depends on what you want.

That's just what I think anyway.

Raskolnikov

I disagree with the sentiments written by most of the above. If I had the choice again to drop out of school after my Junior Cert to do an apprenticeship as an electrician or get a trade with the Navy I'd certainly have gone down the route of dropping out. Why? Five years on from my Junior Cert I'm in my second year of university and I'm scraping just to get by. When I graduate in two years time I'm almost certain I'll face a difficult job market (despite what analysts say I really don't see things drastically picking up in the IT sector). If I'm lucky I'll be on a 17,000-19,000E annual wage and might have my debts payed off within two or three years of graduating. So in reality I won't be able to afford a mortage or run a car until I'm 25-26, ten years after I finished my Leaving Cert. Had I dropped out after the Leaving and followed the Navy apprenticeship route as a friend of mine did I'd have been a fully qualified electrician at 18-19 making bags of money and driving around in fast cars. Of course you will have a lot of waster drop-outs, these people end up unemployed because they're either lazy, incompetent or just inherently unemployable.

If you have enough drive and amibition and really do not want to finish your Leaving then seriously consider an apprenticeship.