Outside the box, thanks to my education!

I have never experienced what 'normal' is....I didn't know that i had dyspraxia until i was 28 years old, but i did know that something was different about me, as i was a slow learner and very shy....i could hardly speak at school, and got tormented a lot by other children, and i could barely read or write until i was nearly 11 years old!

I spent all of my childhood from what i can remember, living down a track in a wooden shack hundreds of yards into the countryside yet still living within a town. Due to this, and going to school in York i barely knew anyone in the area, and when i reached adolescence it was tough for me, and i felt more alienated than ever, and i didn't really rebel until i was actually an adult, and had moved into a town rather than living in the countryside!

I was educated at a Rudolf Steiner School. In many ways i was very grateful for this, as they never pressurised me once and were understanding of my difficulties, and were very supportive, and we all felt like we had a bond with the teachers, which was a great feeling, it was in some ways a utopia. In other ways it wasn't preparing me for the world outside, as there was no qualifications at the end of it, and we learnt things at a slower pace, while state school children learnt science at say 7 years old, we didn't do it until we were at least 12! We didn't learn anything about biology or even history until we were past 10 years old, and we learnt about loads of different religions, it wasn't defined as one religion.

When i left school i decided to get qualifications by going to College. I wish i had done what my brother had done, he went on a Youth Training Scheme, which doesn't exist now...he had so much fun, and got a placement out of it...I just felt alienated even more, and the first year was terrible on a pointless course, not even GCSEs.....then the second year i did GCSEs, but chose subjects i knew very little about and had virtually been missed out of my education...such as American Studies, and Social and Economic History.....so i pratically failed all these qualifications, apart from English Language where i got a grade B and Humanities a grade D. Yet again, even in the second year of college i still felt alienated and had very little friends, in fact my shyness was so bad that at times in the break i would hide in the toilets just to get it over with!! I would never do that now....in fact since i have been on these daft schemes, i have opened up and i am definetely not shy anymore, i feel like i can talk to anyone, and i do, however i am more a one on one guy, i would find it hard in large groups, but then so does my father and my brother, so it runs in the family that feeling of introversion.