...condemned to failure...

«Home influences alone never saved the New England boy from ruin, though sometimes they may have helped to ruin him; and the influences outside of home were negative. If school helped, it was only by reaction. The dislike of school was so strong as to be a positive gain. The passionate hatred of school methods was almost a method in itself. Yet the day-school of that time was respectable, and the boy had nothing to complain of. In fact, he never complained. He hated it because he was here with a crowd of other boys and compelled to learn by memory a quantity of things that did not amuse him. His memory was slow, and the effort painful. (...)

In any and all its forms, the boy detested school, and the prejudice became deeper with the years. He always reckoned his school-days, from ten to sixteen years old, as time thrown away. Perhaps his needs turned out to be exceptional but his existence was exceptional. Between 1850 and 1900 nearly every one's existence was exceptional. (...)

Thus, at the outset, he was condemned to failure more or less complete in the life awaiting him...»

(The Education of Henry Adams)