# If You Believe Your Public Education Failed You **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 5, 2012, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-believe-your-public-education-failed-you/627361 "2012-07-05T23:28:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2012, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-believe-your-public-education-failed-you/627361/1 "2012-07-05T23:28:04Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-believe-your-public-education-failed-you/627361/2 "2012-07-06T01:01:44Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-believe-your-public-education-failed-you/627361/3 "2012-07-06T01:09:15Z")
Went to Lanphier…the Pleasant Plains. Class of 78 Does that help?? ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-believe-your-public-education-failed-you/627361/4 "2012-07-06T02:10:01Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-believe-your-public-education-failed-you/627361/5 "2012-07-07T05:11:38Z")
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.