#schoolrant

Me and my class read something about yellow fever in English class a few days ago, and we were all supposed to circle the words we didn't know. I circle the words I don't know which isn't that many. Then after we read it my teacher says to say what words we circled and she'll write them all on the board. I kid you not my class didn't say 10 or 20 words, no it was 33. I literally just counted.

In my class/grade we're gonna read Fever 1793 which is about Yellow Fever. So before we started reading it we watched videos about Philadelphia and Yellow Fever. I'm not someone who likes to image diseases, and even worse, thinking about if I got a disease and then died. So watching a video about people vomiting up black stuff and whatever was going on in their liver wasn't..fun(obviously).

I dunno why I'm acting so wimpy(as if I'm not) but when I was younger I legit got terrified after a friend told me ring around the rosey is about the plague. I literally got so scared I couldn't stop thinking about it. I even cried about it to my mom lol

I don't think people realise how bad music education in schools has actually gotten.

From the outside, it looks like a normal subject - you pick it, you play a bit, maybe write some music. But if you're actually trying to do GCSE or A-Level Music properly, it's a completely different story.

First of all, access is a joke. Not every school even offers it anymore. And if they do, it's usually underfunded, understaffed, or treated like it doesn't matter compared to "real" subjects.

And then theres the biggest problem: it depends in your school more than your ability.

You could have:

a proper instrument

a teacher outside school

actual talent and motivation

...and still not be allowed to take the subject just because your school doesn't support it.

That's mad.

Music is one of the only subjects where:

your coursework is personal

your performance is your skill

your creativity actually matters

...but somehow the system still manages to block people who want to do it.

At GCSE and A-Level, it gets even worse.

Its not just about playing anymore - it's:

composition rules

set works

written papers

Which is fine in theory, but in reslity it turns into memorising instead of creating.

And if your school doesn't have the right support? You're alreadybehind before you even start.

What makes it worse is that there are people out there willing to teach and support students properly - outside school, in music academies or privately - but schools often won't allow that to count

So if you end up in this situation where:

the help exists

the ability exists

the motivation exists

...but the system still says no.

And that's the most frustrating part.

Music education shouldn't be about ticking boxes or whether your school can be bothered to run a course properly.

It should be about:

developing musicians

supporting creativity

actually letting people who care do it

Right now, it feels like the opposite.

And people wonder why students lose interest in music.

Maybe it's not the students.

So today was supposed to be a quick info session about the Abitur.

Keyword: supposed to be.

Timetable said 40 minutes. Reality? 80. Eighty. Whole. Minutes.

For what exactly?

We got one info sheet. That’s it. No groundbreaking insights, no “this will save your future” moment—just paper. And two forms to fill out… which, by the way, we don’t even have to hand in until two days later. Efficient. Truly.

Also - as if it wasn't enough yet - there were not enough chairs. So where was I? Sitting on the floor in the very back.

Which—let’s be honest—was the best possible outcome.

Because from there? Zero supervision. People in front of me, a friend next to me, and suddenly the whole thing turned into a survival game:

– sleeping – playing My Rusty Submarine on itch.io – scrolling TikTok – talking about literally anything else

No one noticed not like anyone cared though --

And here’s the thing: I get bored fast. Like, dangerously fast. So this? This wasn’t just mildly annoying—it was mental endurance training.

In conclusion: 80 minutes lost, 0 new information gained, and a strong reminder that school has a very unique talent for stretching nothing into something that feels endless.

But hey—I'm home now. Eating sweet potato fries. So I guess we survived.

monday and tuesday: lectures and workshops

wednesday: should already have come up with a target group, and a setting, present to teacher

thursday: make 3 physical mock-up models of different designs

friday: present these designs to the teacher

like. maybe it isn't super tight but man, coming up with 3 designs and make physical models in a single day? like yeah, couldve gotten started yesterday but i didnt have a lot of time because there was an optional 2h workshop i went to, so i didnt have a lot of energy or time after that

imma want some praise from my family ahahah