Writing Blog Number 2 (continued)

20260211 Schools In Writing

Schools In Writing

One of my good writerly friends received a rejection the other day for a short story. They liked her story but wanted her to rewrite the scenes in the high school to be more realistic. I read the work, and told her the students and school felt like 2005 or so, not 2026. Surprise, that was when her daughter started high school; she is now a veterinarian nurse and years out of study!

Schools are a tricky beast to write. What the students say, do, wear and how they interact with technology will instantly date a book. How they interact with teachers, peers and the work differs. The expectations placed upon students differs.

And what country the story is set in makes a huge difference.

Here’s an example of differences.
* In the year 2000, students didn’t have ready access to mobile (I think the US calls them cell) phones. Social media was chatboards if anything. Interactions were all in person.
* In the year 2006, more students had mobile phones, and social media and blogs were becoming more commonplace. There was still a lot of in-person interaction, but more was done through ICQ, Messenger, etc. Facebook was more common. Online gaming, MMORPGs, open world scenarios, all that really dominated the spare time of students.
* In the year 2011, Twitter had taken over the world. Everyone tweeted. Facebook was huge and had infiltrated the older demographics, so students did not feel it was a “safe” space for them. Social media had taken over from in-person contact, however. Wikipedia had also taken hold as the primary source for information.
* By 2016, blogs had become a thing of the past, and the amount of different social media forms available to students was huge. Cyber-bullying had reached epidemic proportions, and people still did not have the concept of once online, online forever. We saw the first prosecutions for online hate. Students were in a state of flux. In-person interactions were restricted to school and maybe sport. It seemed every teenager (and many pre-teens) had a mobile phone with connection to the world.
* In 2020 the world was in lockdown. Interactions and school lessons were done virtually. Social media was the only way students interacted. Lessons were conducted online and submissions were also done through portals. This also meant plagiarism (when teachers bothered to check) was detected more frequently because the tools were easier to apply.
* Fast forward to now, 2026, and the younger generations are using social media less and are doing more things in real life. Social media use amongst students is at its lowest level for almost 20 years. Gaming is also at a low level (but there are financial and personal political reasons for that). However, sport participation has not picked up. The students are in a state of flux, submitting school work online, doing some virtual classes, but also doing things in person.

That is a horrid generalisation, but it seems to hold true.

Now, let’s look at Australian schools.
         I don’t know the US schooling system, but here is Australia’s:
* 3 ½ to 4 ½ years old – Kindergarten
* 4 ½ to 7/8 years old – Junior primary
* 7/8 (year 3) to 12/13 (year 6) – Primary school
* 12/13 (year 7) to 17/18 (year 12) or 18/19 (year 13) – High school
* Then tertiary study. We don’t have pre-entry courses for university. Your year 12/13 results get you in based on exams and work, and then it is sink or swim. Bachelor degrees are 3 or 4 years, then there is graduate diploma, Honours, Masters, and PhD. Depending on Bachelor results, you can skip some (so I am going from Bachelors to Masters).
         Further, mobile phones have been banned at Australian schools since 2020 and the end of lockdowns. As of 2025, people under the age of 16 are banned from using social media. Wikipedia has been banned as a research resource since 2016. And as of 2027, it seems all AI will be banned from the classroom, by teachers and students.

In China, from what I can gather, school is very regimented, and social media is all state controlled. Extra-curricular activities are encouraged; gaming is not. Many Chinese students who attain high grades are encouraged to go to international universities. I have gathered that from talking to a few uni students out here. A very different schooling system.

So, schools… be careful. It is maybe why Hogwarts works; it is set now, but the school is still working on antiquated methods because of magic. But read Carrie by Stephen King and that school seems rather out of date.