High School

In Germany high school started in grade 5, and I went to the local gymnasium. All of a sudden we had a different teacher for each subject, and there were many. The different sciences were taught as separate subjects: physics, chemistry and biology. There was history, geography, social studies, religion, sport, visual arts and music as well as mathematics and German and, can you believe it, the boys did woodwork while we, the girls, were knitting and sowing!

Chemistry was my favourite subject. I have fond memories of my passionate chemistry teacher guiding us through one experiment after another.

When I was in year 8 my parents separated. It was decided that my sister and one brother would go with my mother, and my youngest brother and I with my father. I was not coping well with this new change. This became apparent at school when my marks dropped by one in each subject. I found it difficult to focus on lessons, became disengaged and spent much of my time in class staring outside through the window. I began to hate school and I was never able to get my marks up again. Maslow's Hierarchy had crumbled. While I still had food and shelter, there was no more the stability I had enjoyed before. The family unit had split, I didn't know where I belonged, and this went all the way up the hierarchy. My self-esteem wasn't what it used to be and I was not achieving to my potential.