As someone who spent the entirety of my secondary school years in special ed, I am tired of not being able to relate to others on the topic of "universal" british secondary school experiences.
So in attempt to combat feeling left out, I have come up with my own list of quintessential secondary school experiences.
2009-2014 british special ed secondary school culture is:
Weekly spelling tests. Every year.
Teachers assuming we would all be too clueless to figure out that every staff computer password was literally set to "password".
Sex education not technically being abstinence only, but still lowkey encouraging it by primarily focusing on the negative consequences of engaging in sexual activity, such as STIs and unwanted pregnancy.
Strict uniform rules being easy to enforce when the total number of students was small enough for everyone to be noticed individually.
Feeling nervous (due to stigma) whenever someone you perceived as normal would ask you what school you went to.
Every student in the entire school having to appear on stage at least once for the Christmas production each year.
Missing out on the classic "you can achieve anything if you just work hard" speech. Some kids were even told that they would never achieve their dream jobs.
That one teacher (or teaching assistant) who openly disliked you.
Due to it being a male dominant environment, the most popular girls were usually "one of the guys".
Academic performance levels that would be considered failing grades in mainstream education actually being praised as high achievements when only slightly below average. (A personal example would be me getting a D in maths)
Those pencil packs with "100% Attendance" written on them being given as a reward at the end of each term to those who showed up every day. I would like to thank my strict mum for helping me win those pencils almost every term.
No PDA between couples allowed, not even hugging. (Although in my case they did eventually update this rule to allow holding hands as the exception)
A noticeable lack of sympathy from many teachers whenever someone had an emotional outburst in a situation that was actually distressing for them.
Years 7 and 8 still feeling like an extension of primary school.
The representation you lacked in fiction being made up for in documentaries your parents watched.
Everyone knowing everyone like they do in small villages.
Social skills classes taught with the implication that the objectively correct way to communicate is the neurotypical way.
Either getting pathologised for finding something difficult or told to stop making excuses. No in-between.
Those who were considered "high functioning" often trying to distance themselves from those who were more severely disabled. Despite not actually being very high functioning myself, I was still guilty of doing this multiple times and for that I am sorry.
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