Happy 20 Years

I hated high school.

It wasn't that it was all the hormones and the having a crush on every guy that looked half decent (ok, I HAD my standards- I only crushed on the best looking ones...who were unavailable).  I hated high school like most other smart kids because it's 4 painful years of learning that the rest of the world is stupid...and you're stuck with them for the rest of your life.

Now, it didn't really sink in at the time that that was what high school had to teach me- I kept relearning this lovely lesson for the past twenty years since I graduated.

And it still baffles me.

But this year, I find looking back, that I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow I woke up tomorrow and I was heading to high school.  I guess time is funny like that.

What's different for me in the past couple of years is that I've never before had such an affinity to the age that I grew up in.  Perhaps that's just me getting old- remembering the "good ol' days".  But I definitely feel like things were a great deal different growing up in the age before the internet and cell phones in every home.  People generally had to work harder to become educated- and, hence, the educated were more respected.

Now, some of this problem is that the educational system is broken.  There isn't enough support for real educators to actually EDUCATE.  They certainly can't discipline the students that are acting out, so they can only babysit.  No one gets an education.  No one has respect for school. ...and no one wants to be harsh on students lest the student come back with a gun and shoot the teacher and class.

I truly feel for this problem.  The school system in America is broken.  We need a major reform.  Students, parents, educators- we shouldn't be in a position where people are going to come and shoot you for giving them an F.  And you shouldn't have to have metal detectors on the classroom doors to protect yourselves.

What we need is REFORM.

The age of public school as we've known it is over.  The killing blow was the poorly devised No Child Left Behind Act; educational standards have declined dramatically ever since while animosity and school violence has sharply increased.  We should be looking to hire tutors, or better yet, start training our children to do something meaningful- like internships at businesses and really return to education for its true purpose- not an internment camp with armed guards for our children every day.

So, in this year, the 20th anniversary of my high school graduation, I have decided to never send my daughter to public school.  The system is broken.  There's nothing that she's going to benefit from in public schools that she wouldn't get from other group activities and home schooling.

I ask for other parents to seriously consider doing the same.  Reform won't happen until there's a MAJORITY of people that want it.

On that note, kiss your kids before you send them to the bus this morning.  Hopefully the next school shooting won't be at your school.