Why I left The Education of Public Schools

(How to be your own high school teacher)

My name is David, Ovsiankin. I am a 17 year old who has been recently diagnosed with high functioning autism/aspergers syndrome, and diagnosed from birth with a deaf left ear. I was brought up in Tel Aviv, Israel, and immigrated to the United States at the age of four. Already I was so different, in a different country, but I never expected that I would become what I am today, and this is how I got there.

I discovered so much recently, and it took a series of synchronizing conditions, and me to change myself for that to happen. When I came to the United States, I hated preschool. Teachers were yelling at me in a language I couldn't understand, I was forced to do something I had no care for, I used to look out the window dreaming to be outside and free. This continued in elementary school, I had trouble focusing on the task at hand, and boy was I bullied. In general, I was very unique, but I totally failed to make friends, I usually had only one or two close friends, but everyone else either excluded me or picked on me for no reason. I was forced to spend my time doing mindbogglingly boring work out of the textbooks, and in our school culture, we were expected to achieve highly in it! In middle school, things began to get better. My grades rose to straight A’s, and I was pursuing my interests, but more and more I was delusionally caught up in the culture of high grades, high achievement, getting into a prestigious university, and becoming something I’m not. However, with the coming of ninth grade, I totally broke down. I hated my classes, I hated myself, and how I couldn't achieve academically like I wanted, and how I couldn't be like some other people.

By tenth grade though, I began to reach outside. I began to look at how ridiculous, and unfair the entire school and university system was. I began to embrace my uniqueness, I turned my focus to my passions, skills, and what made me what I am. I spent some time alone to think, I thought about where this world was going, about the deep truth about everything, about how our world, and how the whole universe worked, and it’s secrets. I would look to the sunlight casting over the distance, wondering how I could make my impact on the world. All of a sudden the school and college life that I used to worry so much about, seemed so insignificant and hollow. I slowly began to space myself more and more from my classes, only focusing on the ones that mattered to me. There were things I wanted to do, and high school and college couldn't really offer me anything that I needed. Eventually, by 11th grade I had to leave, but I was fine with it. I had so many more life and career options outside of school, than I did within. I am now pursuing my passions as a career, I started my own political club, began blogging, and even began working with a business partner. I was now happy, much happier than I had ever been under the school system. Along the way, I discovered 22 fundamental rules, and it is now my privilege to be able to share it with a special someone like you.

If you are still reading this, then you are clearly an open person, and interested in new and unique ways of thinking, and I highly encourage you to keep reading.

The global world is changing. With our prolific connections, we are beginning to change ourselves and our society, experiencing new cultures and ideas, and becoming so much more aware of who we are and were we belong. Essentially, we are reaching into a 21st century enlightenment, and I invite you to join me.

I am going to teach you how to rely on your own nature to find success, happiness or enlightenment in your life, without the need for expensive and overbearing schools, colleges, or careers, or even society at all. If you read everything, and take it to heart, I guarantee that your life and the external and internal world you are in will completely change.

Be ready to except what might be painful or uncomfortable occurrences, they are all part of learning.
Be willing to go, live, and think outside the box. Unusually good things can only result from unusual actions. If you want to accomplish anything out of the ordinary, you have to be act and behave out of the ordinary, simple as that. As long as doesn't harm anything or anyone, no matter how strange, unusual, daunting, non conforming, you have to be willing to do it, you will see the results.
Learn to trust and rely on your own instinct. It is a gift given to you, that took 100s of millions of years to form, so use it. Many people will call it “follow your heart,” I call it following your instinct. Your instinct is much like your subconscious, it is where your greatest potential, where your greatest ideas are hidden, learn to tap into it.
Know where you are in relationship to your own life, to your environment, to earth, to the universe, and to this existence.
Develop a relationship and confidence with yourself, get to know who you really are, not what other people think you are, or want you to be.
Learn to trust yourself, and have confidence in yourself and your actions. If you treat yourself with confidence, understanding, and respect, others will treat you the exact same way.
Remember, you are very intelligent, talented, and gifted. There is not just one way of being mentally capable, or being unique. You could be body intelligent/athletic, nature intelligent, math/logic intelligent, literary intelligent, creative intelligent, socially intelligent, philosophy intelligent, the list goes on!
Eliminate the concept of superiority and inferiority from your mind for good. You are not less than anyone, nor are you more than anyone. You have no need to think that anyone is better than you, and at the same time you have no right to look down on anybody. You can certainly follow the examples and advice of others, but you can’t just idolize to be like someone else, that just leaves you vulnerable to manipulation and unhappiness. Remember, these concepts of being better or worse in reality totally do not exist, you are different, not superior or inferior.
Success is always waiting for you, but it comes in many different forms. The very typical view of success is doing good in school, doing good in sports, getting into a good college, finding a well paying job, blah, blah, blah. This form of thinking is very strained, limited and specific, which is exactly why so few are able to achieve it. Is it the only way? no!! Succeeding comes in so many possibilities, learn to think outside of this society box. Depending on who you are, you could become a soldier, survivalist, artist, amateur scientist, musician, a local community leader, a sportsman, it could be anything.
To continue off of number nine, every single one of the most impacting and influential actions or concepts ever done, did not come from “Extraordinary” people with unobtainable characteristics, they came from people like you and me. Each and every of us, no matter who we are, hold the potential within ourselves to do the impossible.
Find your passions! Find what you love to do! This is absolutely invaluable to help you find meaning in your life, and when you are successful, pursue it. No matter what difficult, crazy, or just plain unfamiliar actions you have to do in the process, continue it! Essentially, follow your passions no matter what!
If you follow your passions, and what gives you meaning no matter what, I guarantee you that you will automatically work hard at it, focus, persevere, and challenge yourself. I can also guarantee that you will immediately find your life to be so much more enriched, and you will be happier.
Unfortunately, you can’t become anything, but almost all the time, you can become what you are passionate about. Analyze yourself before you decide on a life pursuit, make sure that it is not only on something you are passionate about, but that it also will cooperate with your personality, instinct, basically something that you can fully immerse yourself in.
Keep challenging yourself! As long as you can handle it, the more you challenge yourself, the farther you will get. If you don’t keep challenging yourself, you’ll get bored. Simple as that. And then you will automatically eventually try to break out of that. If you are doing something you love, skip this step, you will automatically do that.
It is a basic right of anyone to be able to choose your own authority, and be with people you can trust. Learn to tell when you are being manipulated. If someone is controlling your life, or telling you everything to do, space away from that. Find a reliable authority that you trust, and if you take what they are giving you, then you in return earn their trust.
Learn to do things on your own. Take away some of your dependence on society! This certainly doesn't have to mean being a hermit, it just means for instance remodeling your own house by yourself to suit you, growing your own vegetables, becoming your own boss, doing your own insurance, keeping yourself healthy by exercising on your own, discovering, believing, and finding things on your own, who knows, you might even learn to build your own car or electronic devices! If you start to adopt a mindset of independence, and start building up your potential for self sufficiency more and more, I promise you that you will achieve self reliance, in your own unique way. Along the way, you will free yourself from manipulation and exploitation and other constrains of society, learn what is really important to you, take away what you don’t need, learn so much, develop countless skills, and live a much fuller life.
Be your own teacher. You don’t need school, grades, SAT’s, college applications, overcompetitve acceptance rates, overbearing student loans, pretentious teachers, or prestigious universities to learn, none of it! On average, 90 — 95 % of what we learn from the classroom, is tossed into the garbage along with the papers we clean out from our desks. That likely means that if you have a PHD, then in reality you are actually a second grader. It just goes to show that if what you’re studying something that has no meaning to you, you don’t deeply understand it. If you don’t deeply understand it, you don’t learn it. Plain and simple. This is why it is so important to learn to be your own teacher. The human brain holds untold capacity for learning and discovering, but the way we live, we often fail to use even a sizable fraction of it. You know yourself, the best, and therefore most of the time you know your own learning style the best, and you can accommodate your studying to it.
To continue of of the previous step, get a notebook, get out and broaden your environment, write down your every idea, write down whatever you find out. Ask questions! Whatever it is that intrigues or interests you, write it down, and find the answer for yourself! Are you a food lover and want to learn to cook professional quality food? Go for it! You’ll find that your kitchen will be filled with wonderful smells, exotic ingredients, and your incredible dishes. Love drawing, and want to learn paint a masterpiece? go for it! Your room will be filled with canvases, oil paints, examples from famous artists, ideas and emotions soon to take the form of art, and your house will be filled with your creations, some okay and some that are out of this world! Like electronic gadgets, and want to learn to build a supercomputer? Again, go! Before you know it, your office will be filled with all sorts of electronic manuals, papers with semantics everywhere, your garage will have all sorts of tools, and in the corner there will be that next awesome thing that will give Bill Gates a run for his money. Do you feel that there is something to this world nobody can see? Want to start your own religion? Look around you, look for hidden forces, hidden secrets, question traditional beliefs, communicate with what others can’t see, and pretty soon, your view and likely that of others will completely change.
Always be a child, to an extent. Always be willing to open, willing to learn, imagine or create new experiences. Grownups typically view kids as not being able to do much, when the fact of the matter is that their abilities to learn, create, imagine, and adapt, are absolutely phenomenal. They are often much more independent than we think. There is a big difference between being immature, and being willing to learn, and because most of us can’t distinguish between the two, we allow our childhood and capacity for learning escape us as we grow. Miss your childhood days? Stop spending your time moping! Bring out the child within you, and you will find that the world is much more interesting, and has much more to offer than you thought!
Put your efforts, your energy, your attention, into what really counts. You made have heard this before, but it is so imperative that you really understand it and make sure it sticks with you. Stay away from what some people will tell you is important, ask yourself what you find to be genuinely important, and you will strike gold. Be genuine! Be genuine about everything you do, otherwise nothing will have meaning or substance. Pull your attention to what will really make a meaningful impact, what will really make a difference and change the lives of you or others around you. Essentially, give your love, help, and support to others around you, and I guarantee you they will give you back the exact same thing. The results of such efforts, are infinitely rewarding, always. GUARANTEED!
Finally, and most importantly, be happy. Be happy. Happiness is energy, happiness is the wind beneath your wings, happiness is the ultimate medicine, happiness will keep you going, happiness is magic. No one else can give it to you, it is up to you to find it! Sure you can’t always be like that, but it is the experiences that we so often are afraid of, and stay away from, that make happiness possible. Happiness, is the best and only way to know that you are making the most of the wonderful gift of life given to you.
Ready, set, go! Good luck reader.