If You Believe Your Public Education Failed You

[HeyHomie]

I'm gathering anecdotes for a blog post I'd like to write. I'm looking for experiences from people who believe they were failed by their education in public schools.

Define "failure" however you'd like.

Thanks!

[foolsguinea]

Did it fail me? Did I fail it? By the time people started really trying to stop me from dropping out, my mind was made up.

I really didn't know why I was there, I wasn't clear on what the guidance counselors were for, and I just washed out.

I think there needs to be some kind of class--or better, an explanatory chart on the wall--explaining why, exactly, one is in school, and how the whole thing works. I was a bookish enough kid that I eventually ended up being influenced by the cranks who complain about compulsory education (though I now think the cranks were wrong) and I stopped caring.

[ThisSpaceForRent]

Went to Lanphier...the Pleasant Plains.

Class of 78

Does that help??

[HeyHomie]

Originally Posted by ThisSpaceForRent

Went to Lanphier...the Pleasant Plains.

Class of 78

Does that help??

In 78 I was at Harvard Park [Elementary] trading KISS Trading Cards™ for Jello™, so no.*

*Although if Lanphier was the shithole in 78 that Southeast was in 88, I'm picking up what you're laying down.

[SnakesCatLady]

When I was in 8th grade we moved from a town with a new school with young teachers to a more rural town. The school building was very old and dilapidated and the teachers were all nearing retirement. The race differential was also striking; the former school was about 50/50 black/white while the new school was about 25% white to 75% black.

They were teaching things in the 8th grade I had studied in the 6th grade. The only class I ever failed in my scholastic career was there - I failed P.E. because the other white girl in the class and I refused (after several trials) to participate in dodgeball.

The homeroom teacher never looked up from her roster; if someone said "here" when your name was called she recorded you as present.

Due to boredom I started skipping school. Despite only going to school a couple of days a week I had A's and B's in every subject other than P.E. .

My mother approached the principal of the school about the problem; his solution was to advance me to the 9th grade. This course would have had me graduating from high school at 16, which my mom didn't think was a good idea.

I started hanging around with some other school-skippers and wound up in a minor brush with the law. Mom and the Judge decided private school was the best course of action for me. I had to go the first year (9th grade) but I chose to keep going there until graduation.

It was the best thing that could have happened to me.