What were you like in Primary/Elementary school?

[Sosekopp]

I was a chaotic, introverted and very naive child prodigy. I would read pretty much everything I could get my hands on. Sometimes I would sit on the lawn outside the school building during the lunch breaks selling imaginary stuff in exchange for imaginary money. When I was in 2nd grade my teachers discovered I had memorized all the capital cities of the world and had me teach geography to a class of 7th graders for an hour or so. I also had a "girlfriend" around that time, but I dumped her because playing Nintendo 64 was much more fun. My teachers were pretty nice, and sometimes they allowed me to leave class and go play the piano or read a book instead.

Until about 4th or 5th grade I also had a theory that pregnancies would just automatically happen when a couple loved each other, and sperm cells were tiny insects who carried the genetic material from the father's tummy to the mother's tummy. Sex was a completely unrelated thing that rebellious teenagers did for no apparent reason.

I was never really a loner, I always had at least a few friends. I was bullied a little, but not much.

 

[DragonsAreForever]

Ah yes...the days in which I was still young and ignorant.

I was more boyish than girlish.
I was arrogant and foolish.
I was top of my class.
I was pretty much a prat.

Fast forward and I'm still the same (except with an obvious set of mammary glands).

 

[BridgeOfSighs]

I used to be an ISFP growing up (as far as I know) so my childhood was quite different in terms of my behavior.

I used to get my school work done fairly on time, and I would *gasp* care about it. Often teacher's liked me as I would get things done, was quiet in class and didn't complain. Usually I was the teacher's pet.. oy.

Friends were a different story. As I was often willing to make friends much more readily, but having gone to the same school with a class size of about 30 I got extremely bored of people by sophomore year. The drama of going to a school FULL of middle-class, white, gossipy, Christiany people wore on me. They knew everything I had ever done (they thought) and it wasn't like I could reinvent myself. I switched groups/friends a lot which didn't seem to bother anyone. Now, I don't talk to more than three-five people from high school. And, even then the talking is slim.

My general outlook was good, despite bouts with depression and so forth that were never taken care of... I thought I could do just about anything out of high school and often pursued my interests. Going to college was exciting to me.

Edit: Oops... jumped ahead to high school.

 

[AkaruiRain]

Pretty outgoing, openly intelligent, part of like, the GT program.

Teachers loved me, as far as I could tell. Only got my card flipped to yellow once, and that was a mere warning.

Eh, usually shallow-kid friends. The kind that can make friends anywhere I guess. We liked to take over the jungle gym as our secret base, then keep the other kids out by using kids as human barriers to openings, who wouldn't allow someone through unless password.

Boyfriends, the latest denim jacket, whatever.. Hillary Duff. Oh hell yes.



It wasn't til I moved back to my old crowd in 5th grade when the I kicked in, and then a period of J between freshman, sophomore, and junior year. Got my P on this year, finally. I'd say I was always an intuitive thinker, with a little slip into F during the dark period I mentioned. Overall, pretty rounded in my P/J, and T/F, currently.

 

[the_s_rabbit]

I had a lot of friends, of all different varieties, both sexes. I guess I was kinda popular. I could hang with anyone. We were all pretty tight in elementary/middle school. I got pretty good grades and the teachers liked me, I think. I didn't really get into fights or conflict much. Overall, it was a really good time. It all changed in high school. Then I became a degenerate and started listening to death metal only and I hated everything else, especially anything that was popular and supposedly "heavy", like Nirvana. But I got over it after a couple years. I realized what a closed-minded ass I was being. Maybe I wanted to form my own clique, I don't know. Academically, I was an underachiever. That didn't change until my third year of college.

Anyways, I used to be a real jerk! But now I'm a people guy.

In college it was back to no boundaries again. I was friends with anyone from anywhere. And that continues today...thankfully. Only now, we can all make fun of each other's quirks and idiosyncrasies without getting offended and feeling insecure.

I have fond memories of elementary/middle school though.

 

[ObliviousGenius]

I had a class of 30 growing up from 1st to 6th grade. We all grew to know each other pretty well so being friendless was not an issue. I was always the kid who was bullied growing up. I was never an extrovert at any point in my life I don't believe. I too was something of a prodigy, I always got the highest grades and I was regarded as the smartest kid in class, although lazy and I never did my homework. I was a class clown as well and I always got into trouble for it. I got a "yellow card" pretty much everyday. At my school we also had the "merit/demerit" system. Merits were rarely handed out to anyone let alone myself but I got my share of demerits. I only hated them because my parents would always give me a big deal about it. (And no credit for merits unfortunately...)

Intellect is not recognized in the black community so I went by fairly unnoticed. I feel like I've always been an INTP because I was BEYOND curious. I questioned everything, even the priests and nuns at the catholic school I went to. I was always known for asking the hard questions.

 

[psychoinsanity]

So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so obnoxtious.

 

[thelithiumcat]

I feel like, after puberty, I got back to who I was before, only a little more grown up. Does that even make sense?

I think I'm getting there. I went into grammar school very naive but intelligent and liking to learn. I had never really noticed differing levels of intelligence in my primary school (I just took it for granted that I was one of the three who got 97% or more on everything) but when I got into year 7 and they started to do things like referring to 3a as 'three baskets of apples' I got angry that this was turning out to be a step back from the level my year 6 teaching was at. This happened in other subjects too, such as french. I then switched off for a couple of years, pretty much. When I started paying attention again, I was behind; particularly in languages. Things went downhill from there until year 11 by which point I did almost no homework at all. I'd look at the type of homework set, and by that point I'd developed a very fatalistic attitude so if it was a certain sort I wouldn't do it. That was usually having to find something on the school computer system because I am always much better with physical paper as opposed to having to print something off. As a result of all this, I ended up getting a lot of detentions. Someone would try to give me one the next day, and I would tell them my detention schedule and say I couldn't do that time but could we reschedule? I guess detention became pretty normal for me but half the time the teachers didn't turn up so that was fine. I only really did a few because of that.

When I got into the 6th form (years 12 and 13) I revised how I work and attempted to develop some sort of work ethic. I'm now in the unfortunate state of having those last two attitudes combined, so sometimes I care about getting work done, sometimes I don't. I'm very fatalistic about whether I'll get things done or not, and no matter whether I want to do work or not I know it's unlikely I'll get it done.

With regards to social tendencies, I have always been a loner, though the level to which I am changes. In primary school we were one small year of 20 students. I had one best friend who would sometimes go off and play with the rest of the year. I didn't care, because I was naively happy to be on my own. I suppose I knew I was odd though, because I remember walking out of my head teacher's office after I got my 11+ results, being accepted by the others and thinking that it was the first time I really felt a part of them. I was friends with quite a few of the staff, particularly the lunch ladies, and I did a lot of reading. I don't remember my homework habits back then, but I assume I did it.

In grammar school I was pretty different, and yet similar. I was more aware of being different and it took me about a year to actually get some sort of friend group. Even then I was just sort of on the side somewhere. That developed until year 11 but since then people have separated out a bit, which makes me sad, and has also left me very, very lonely. I made a friend on my first day, but after she started disappearing to see her other friends, I just spent my entire time trying to find her. Literally. It was the only thing I really did in my breaks and lunchtimes. I couldn't understand why she wasn't coming to see me, and why I couldn't find them anywhere. We were friends in the classes which were our form group, but as the amount of split group (mixed form group) classes increased and the form group classes were reduced, I became more and more lonely because I never really made any friends in my split group. I was so different from them. However, my social life was better than I realised because back then my friendship group was still pretty strong.

At 6th form people took different courses and life choices, and suddenly things were different. I had friends in classes, which was strange. However, I never really made any in my science classes. My friends were in arts lessons. Year 13 rolled around, and by this point I was getting to be a recluse because I never really saw anyone other than my best friend. In year 13, yes my English and Classics friend stopped English, and yes the few vague acquaintances I had stopped my science lessons, but the worst thing was that the INTP I knew went to university and my INTJ best friend moved an hour away. Instead of sticking to my schedule (I obsessed about it enough that I knew whether I'd texted her that day and whether I'd fulfilled my quota of seeing her at least once per week) of how much I saw her, it suddenly changed to once per month. Things have rather slowed down since then. I'm sadder. I'm quite a recluse. I don't talk to many people. I feel like my socialising skills are evaporating. In fact, socialising is most of what I think about because I've gone from experiencing it to analysing my social behaviour obsessively. This has had a negative effect on my general emotional state. I'm quite lonely now.

On the other hand, I feel, as you said, similar to the person I was before, only older and less happy. I was very excitable around my friends in around years 8 to 10. I'm regaining some of my work ethic but it's very difficult to get back.

 

[Twn]

My view of myself may be a bit.....cloudy. I was put on anti-depressants at the age of ten, so from the 4-7th grade I have no idea whether to blame my behavior on the medications I was on, or my true self.

Before the 4th grade, I was just very quiet. I was always good at writing, and spelling. I rarely spoke to people, friends, but when I did I spoke in a proper manner. Math was always horrible for me, and until the 4th grade I had no clue why.

In the 4th grade (Before the drugs) I was reading and writing at an exceptionally high levels, but my teachers said I didnt do enough work. I didnt try hard enough. I always heard of how I could be so much better, but not necessarily ....smarter. My intelligence was never in question, it was more about my work ethic. Even though I could read and write, and understand complex theories, I still had almost failing grades. I never did homework, and I rarely did school assignments. I worked when I was inspired. Back then, it was hard for me to express that due to emotional issues.

Math never made sense to me back then, but as I got older (7-8th grade) I discovered that I simply was slow at math. I took longer than other kids to process equations. I always came to the right solution, but it took me awhile. A long ass time.

Other than that, I was a kid that was motivated by the beautiful things. I was free-spirited in my head. I loved new ideas, but I hated following through with anything. At times it seemed physically and intellectually impossible, or just boring, to finish a science project, or a research paper.

I was a loner, also.



Its funny that other INTP individuals are good at the sciences, because Im not. When I first learned what I was classified as, It was so hard to believe that I analyzed every part of my personality. Just to come to the conclusion that I actually do belong in this group.

 

[MizKodomo]

Like everyone here it seems, I was a loner, who was a bit wild (chipped tooth and plenty of scars to prove it), strange (while girls where playing house and gossiping on the playground, I was off reading in the corner, or playing football in the field with the boys), and got bored too easily (Jumping fences, ding dong ditching, setting off bottle rockets in the middle of elementary school play grounds in the middle of the night...) I don't know if medication would have helped me in school (or still would), but it's no small stretch for me to say that Art and Theater especially, kept me from completely ruining my life. I did theater from the age of 3 to about the age of 15, when I decided that I would be happier as a visual artist, rather than a theater geek xD

Having rehearsals until 10 or 11 at night was great cover for not being incredibly social early on, and it forced me to be around people. I never really had 'friends', but I knew a lot of people (generally older). I moved a lot too, going to 11 different schools in 3 different states in 12 years.

All in all, I was precocious, loud, and quite charming.

Oh and when I was about in 8th grade, I tested as an ENTP, and it didn't change much until my Junior and Senior year of High school- I became more reserved and less in your face.

 

[snafupants]

Like everyone here it seems, I was a loner, who was a bit wild (chipped tooth and plenty of scars to prove it), strange (while girls where playing house and gossiping on the playground, I was off reading in the corner, or playing football in the field with the boys), and got bored too easily (Jumping fences, ding dong ditching, setting off bottle rockets in the middle of elementary school play grounds in the middle of the night...) I don't know if medication would have helped me in school (or still would), but it's no small stretch for me to say that Art and Theater especially, kept me from completely ruining my life. I did theater from the age of 3 to about the age of 15, when I decided that I would be happier as a visual artist, rather than a theater geek xD

Having rehearsals until 10 or 11 at night was great cover for not being incredibly social early on, and it forced me to be around people. I never really had 'friends', but I knew a lot of people (generally older). I moved a lot too, going to 11 different schools in 3 different states in 12 years.

All in all, I was precocious, loud, and quite charming.

Oh and when I was about in 8th grade, I tested as an ENTP, and it didn't change much until my Junior and Senior year of High school- I became more reserved and less in your face.

According to the Myers-Briggs schema, apparently, a personality is not fully crystallized until around the mid twenties. I suppose environmental factors could postpone or catalyze that age around a bit.

 

[Lydia]

Extremely shy and highly imaginative by the brain. Teachers enjoyed my company. Mostly because I was always top in class and a goodie goody.

Friends. Were not particularly in my interest, though I managed to keep a good couple. As a kid you are at ease to make friends so easily. But then break up so fast. Come and go.

 

[ProxyAmenRa]

I was not shy. I spent the majority of it in solitude making contraptions or analyzing thought experiments. I perceived other children as being odd because their processes of thought weren't logical.

 

[kantor1003]

Fuck you and your logic proxy. Admit it, it's just your way of seeking domination on the playground you narcissistic bastard :P

 

[Kei Kei]

I'm a quiet girl, school is pretty boring place for me.

 

[Kairoh]

Shy, but prone to spontaneous class clowning. Top of my class up until 8th grade (small school, same class of 30 kids all 9 years). I liked to cause trouble, but subtly, and looked like a good kid on the outside. Friends came and went, I don't talk to anyone from those years anymore. It kind of upsets me when I see former friends from my K-8 school who still keep in touch (in college now), I wish I could create those sort of lasting friendships, but I always manage to screw things up with people.

 

[ProxyAmenRa]

Fuck you and your logic proxy. Admit it, it's just your way of seeking domination on the playground you narcissistic bastard :P

hahaha, ohh dear, Well I did cry in grade 7 when a teacher ripped up an exam I was doing for no particular reason. You don't make many friends if you cry in class. It was all part of the long term plan for global playground domination.

 

[GYX_Kid]

Video games
Ignorant of physical appearance, to the point of not believing in it
Kinda wacky
Pretty bad at most games in gym, other than dodging dodgeballs
Was the guy who knew how to spell anything
Liked to recite a lot of songs, and a few movies, from beginning to end

Until about 4th or 5th grade I also had a theory that pregnancies would just automatically happen when a couple loved each other, and sperm cells were tiny insects who carried the genetic material from the father's tummy to the mother's tummy. Sex was a completely unrelated thing that rebellious teenagers did for no apparent reason.

I also invented "trading pee" with penis insertion into a vagina, and both urinating into each others' bladders (before knowing anything about sex at all). Never actually traded pee.

 

[serh]

As with Ermine above, after teaching myself to read at 3, that's all I've been doing while both in school or home. When I wasn't reading at home, I used to build buildings/mechanisms out of my Lego set.
I remember I was somewhat more extroverted back then, I actually would talk to people I don't really know well, so I had a couple of friends. Most of the time I would just quietly sit in the corner, reading my encyclopedias, staying away from trouble.
The teachers didn't mind me, I was quiet and had perfect grades, but they did comment on my refuses to participate in events/activities.

 

[Wasp]

My family was always on the move. I believe the longest amount time I spent at one school was four years. Anyways I was the spawn of Satan whenever I wasn't reading or being the class mute. I remember one girl convinced me to play tag with her and a group. She was not playing fair. I pounced on her and bit her and when the teacher pulled me off her I bit her too.....hope they they still have bite marks.
When I reached second grade, even though I had high grades and was light years ahead, I would verbally abuse everyone. I only had one friend and even she would need time away from me. The following year was the best. I had a teacher who was considered unorthodox (she brought a cow heart and let us dissect) and it was great. Students continued to avoid me though. They called me bloody Mary (they still do) because I would get chronic nossebleeds and I would threaten to throw the blood at them if they didn't leave me alone.

I'm mostly better now.

 

[eagor]

in elementary school my teachers thought i was an abused child because i never looked teachers in the eye (they never did but it got my parents in a heap of trouble) i was very quite and never really made any friends

then sixth grade i made a few really good friends and my teachers hated me because i usually disagreed with their asinine "ideals" and it went like that till i got out of high school. i was even banned from my junior English class because my teacher thought i was gonna kill her (i wouldn't of course), spent the rest of that class in detention best year ever

 

[Ostriker]

Hi, everyone. I'm new here. I was thinking of making an introduction thread, but this seems like a good place to tell some of my story.

In elementary school I guess I was a fairly normal child. I generally wanted to be liked and I made friends with kids who shared my interests. I liked everyone and everyone liked me, but I wasn't "popular" by any means. However, because I was never good at sports, I hated gym class and "the jocks" were the first group of people I learned to despise, as they had no patience for my shortcomings and would taunt me during games of wiffle ball or bombardment. Though there were never any serious bullying issues.

I think I was much more outgoing then than I am now, partly because I was sensistive and rejection from my peers on the sports field created insecurities more broad in nature that had lasted into high school. Early on I remember trying to be somewhat of a class clown, but my sense of humor was odd and many didn't understand it. I learned that I wasn't "the funny guy". By puberty I started to become much quieter and aware of where I fell next to my peers. I started realizing I was smarter and naturally less social than most other kids. But this was after elementary, more like end of middle school and through high school that these changes occurred.

I always hated school, even since elementary. Despite some social turbulance with the athletic kids (insignificant things, really. I was just sensitive and cared too much what others thought of me, so what little dissaproval I recieved had a big effect on me), there were other reasons. I hated the lack of freedom and I just found school boring. It's not like I was a genius or the work was too easy, I just had other interests, like drawing and playing Nintendo. Teachers liked me though, and I got all high marks because they were based only on your behavior and ability to follow directions. Once I hit middle school my grades suffered because I hated doing my work. I was (and am) lazy and my interests outside of school had a greater hold on me.

Unlike my quiet dispostion which hadn't developed until puberty, I always had a very creative side. I was an avid drawer since the age of maybe two or three. I liked drawing cartoons and Nintendo characters in particular. Art teachers loved me and I always received recognition from them and my peers for my drawings. I remember that the praise from others never ment much to me, and through puberty I began realizing how much it annoyed me.

So, that's my intro/reply to this thread. I just want to say that I'm happy to be here, and thanks for reading.

 

[dokuro]

Very, very bookish and studious. Before the sixth grade I had already finished most of the books at the public library, and I could do math at a jr. high level. However by then I had already figured out that I could use my reputation and take advantage of it. All my teachers adored me, and I used this to get away with bad things. I'd do something then blame the 'bad' kid in the class, and of course they would believe me since I was the quiet, studious, little asian girl.

Because I was so much more advanced than my peers I definitely developed an intellectual arrogance that I still kind of have today. By the end of elementary school, I realized that school was nothing but a form of social indoctrination where I wasn't taught real knowledge but how to act in society. I was able to control myself until 8th grade, but as soon as I hit 9th I was acting up, I never applied myself, got kicked out of my math class because I refused to work and made sarcastic remarks to my incompetent teacher, and I was pretty much out of control. I'm a lot steadier now, because I think I hit the high point of my puberty around 9th-10th grade, so I really acted up, and was more emotional than a typical INTP, but they were mostly because I was frustrated from being bored and never intellectually challenged not to mention the fact it felt like I was surrounded by nothing but morons in heat. More than emotional I was just really dark, moody and brooding all the time. I was very depressed looking on the outside and angry on the inside but didn't really act upon these emotions, unless I was at home. For those two years I fought with my mom endlessly but mostly because she kept wanting me to open up and talk about my feeliings which I hated. I just wanted to be alone listen to emo music and rationalize my problems away. I'm a lot more balanced out now, although I still think that I'm surrounded by idiots. I'm just less moody about it.

 

[lungs]

i was well-behaved and kept to myself. i read a lot. i got teased a lot. i was known in my family for being the smart little kid who learned to read at a young age, so my mom thought it was charming to dress me up like a nerd doll.

i peed my pants in kindergarten because the teacher didn't acknowledge me when i raised my hand to ask permission and we were explicitly told to never go to the bathroom until after we got permission. so i stood there with my hand raised for several minutes while she was distracted with another teacher, until i couldn't hold it anymore.

i did expect some leeway because i was so obedient, it seemed a contract or something. when i was about 4 or 5 i gathered several of my toys and was about to have a garage sale and when my parents discovered what i was doing and forbade it, i was taken by surprise. i mean, it was MY stuff.

i dug up worms and kept them as pets until my dad caught me kissing them and wouldn't let me anymore.

i made up narratives by connecting the pictures along in coloring books and acted them out as plays. my grandma was quite impressed with my dramatic abilities.

when i was about 10 i enjoyed dumpster diving with my friends and using the treasures to make forts in the woods. if we were caught, one of us would claim that we lost an earring. being girls worked to our advantage, i think.

 

[neurotick]

Back in first & second grade, I used to be quiet, and reserved. At second grade's end, we took some test to decide who would be learning English on a more advanced level.Of course, I got in, giving a boost to my self-confidence.

Thus I became a sort of a loud,sarcastic jokester, often correcting teachers, and especially fellow classmates, given they make any mistakes.I had the tendency to avoid any kind of work, be it homework, or physical:therefore at the end of the years, I hardly ever got grades better than Bs(A in physics,maths), and started getting overweight.I had some 'friends' of sort, though this was mostly limited to being conversational partners, (while lessons were taking placeut of school, we hardly ever met) but we couldn't care less if something would've happened to one of us.This stage lasted till the end of 7th grade.

When 8th grade began, I've came to notice that our numbers became seriously depleted:a total of 21 kids(16 of them girls, as such social interactions became increasingly less common for me); and we were considered the 'worst' class in the school.Also, I found a girl from an other class(possibly an INTP, too), who I became obsessed with: fell in love, if you will, but as it usually is with INTPs, I mostly observed from afar, and never actually initiated a conversation with her...
Anyway, feeling as I've lost myself, I've yet again became quiet, and reserved, and I quite often let other's mistakes slip, shall they make them: it no longer annoyed me, not to that extent; I became unusually detached even for an INTP.Though, I started losing weight.

But after all, I managed to finish primary school, and went to a vocational school-learning electronics.(by choice).I've hoped to find my own kind there, but I've had to be disappointed:even though after some time, I found three guys who dag themselves deeper into the field, and were generally more up to my expectations than the others, I didn't really fit in. Meanwhile, I decided that I should take my English language exams out of the way(supposedly taken 4 years later), and possibly start learning German as a second foreign language. I initialed the process, and most certainly could've finished it, but by middle-term, I come to the conclusion that this school ain't for me, so I just switched to a general high-school(maybe surprising me the most).Had to take some tests for that,yet again, but these proved to be no issues. (Not so) incidentally, I ended up in the same class with the lady I've laid my eyes upon back in elementary.(hell, even though I had concrete plans about taking up German as the second language, when I found out that she was in an other class, it turned to be Italian: which. in terms of practicality, seems to be the most ridiculous choice I could make-not that I take any shame in my decision).Of course, jumping in a moving car is far more conspicuous,than is my liking.As for half a year, I didn't have any chemistry lessons, it took me by surprise when the teacher said that here and now, on my second day, I'm gonna write a chemistry test. Funny thing is, I could bullshit it, so I didn't fail.Of course, later it turned out that I didn't had to, and I got to write the tests from what the others learned till that point two months later:so I got some preparation time-in which, of course, I made absolutely no preparations.Though I passed them with C.I can't say that about Italian, for I utterly failed that one:there's no way I could bullshit about a whole language,with no prior knowledge...and preparation(not that it matters, it makes no difference in my end-year grade-and somehow, I managed to get it up to C,with no effort at home,whatsoever|chemistry got up to B) As with the girl, we got along well for the first three months, then communication suddenly ceased, but I can't put my finger on it:still an enigma for me.

And sudden stop:for that's where I am.

 

[birdsnestfern]

Very shy