Public Schools Are the Shit! by Aaron Michael Baker

Originally posted at: https://spoonvision.wordpress.com/2017/10/27/public-schools-are-the-shit/

Public schools are the shit!
Ask any fourth grader.
“What do you think of your school, Timmy?”
“My school’s the shit!”
“Does your teacher let you talk that way, Timmy?”
“Of course not! I just really want you to know how
important my school is to me.”
And there are over three million fourth graders
in this country just like Timmy who are pumped about
the Bernoulli’s principle demonstration
in Science class tomorrow.

For over 50 million American students,
the public school is their place of learning
and so much more.
It’s their breakfast and lunch.
It’s their friends and their frenemies,
their likes and their dislikes,
their comforts and their challenges.
It’s their fashion, their sexuality,
their prejudice, and their secrets.
It’s their music and Snapchat story.
It’s their passion and power.
Their hobbies and habits.

The majority of people
in the United States have attended a public
school at some point in their lives.
More people in the U.S. go through public schools
than have cable television,
go to church every Sunday,
or take regular baths.
The kinds of things Americans do at similar
rates to attending public schools are things
like owning pets.
The kinds of things Americans do at higher
rates than attending public schools are things
like riding in cars and walking on sidewalks.

Public schools perform astounding feats
every single day.
Four teenagers walk into a Target, and
Loss Prevention loses their collective mind.
Meanwhile, public schools organize students
into classes of 15, 30, and sometimes more
for 7.5 hours a day.
Neighborhood public schools take the
students from the community,
put them all together in one building
(and a few portables),
and then teach them.
Almost every single day,
hundreds of young people
go into a public school
and safely come out at the end of the day.
This is nothing short of miraculous!

So when the sensationalist “School Choice” blog,
Choice Remarks, highlights outlying tragic stories
in a culpable attempt to say “all public schools”
and don’t even take the time
to actually write about it
(instead, posts links to the writing of real journalists),

And when the white bourgeoisie readership of said blog
make malicious comments on social media
attacking the personal character of the teacher
responsible for Spoon Vision
without ever reading the actual post
in question on this site,

the message is clear.

Public schools are vital, supported, and strong.
The critics are few, loud, and bigoted.
And public schools are here to stay!