I am a proud product of public education. When I was a kid, no other option occurred to
us. Sure, we knew a couple of kids who
went to Christian school and once in a while we encountered a family that
homeschooled. But by and large, you walked to the bus stop, the yellow bus
picked you up and you went where it took you.
In elementary school, I attended three public schools, including the one where I now teach. At each one, I felt safe, loved and nurtured. Starting at five years old, I spent my days with people who were like me and some who weren’t so much like me on the outside or on paper. The beauty is I didn’t realize or care, because I was too young to know the difference.
My fourth grade AG teacher is one of two public school
teachers that I credit with my career path. I have vivid memories of the discussions we had in class, the projects
we did together and “the look” she gave us when we knew we were going to have
to sign the behavior book. She had
standards and she expected us to live up to them. School wasn’t just a place we went; it was an
experience we shared.
In middle school, I qualified for a gifted program and my
dad spent three years carpooling from our town to a nearby city every day in his 1984 Escort. (I was
born in 1983, so you do the math). On
Friday nights, that same Escort dropped me off at “parties” across the county
where we played Spin the Bottle and watched scary movies. But by day, we read quality literature
together, studied cultures from around the world, and played silly, imaginative
games at lunch. (We were dorks.)
Lessons from these three years of public education are still
the ones that I flash back to most often when my husband and I play Jeopardy each
night. I couldn’t begin to tell you how
much I learned those three years, but I do want you to know this: public school
met me where I was and prepared me for a future I couldn’t yet imagine.
I attended high school back in my hometown where I worked my
butt off to graduate pretty high up in a competitive class of a few
hundred. I say that to say this: I
attended private college but only because my public education prepared me to
score well enough on the SAT to earn a full tuition scholarship. My college years were dedicated to learning
how to give back to public schools as an educator, as I spent countless hours
observing, volunteering and student teaching in public schools.
I’m so thankful for my public school experience. It made me who I am today, along with my
abiding church experience and the masterful “schooling” my parents no doubt did
at home in addition to our daytime education. Kudos to my parents for trusting a public school system with their
daughters when no doubt it had to have been challenging at times.
Here’s the thing people fail to realize about public schools:
no one (teacher or student) is there because it’s the easiest thing to do. We’re all there, day in and day out, because
it’s the right thing to do. Public
schools promote community, diversity, tolerance, and most of all, an education
that emulates real life. Despite its
flaws, in my opinion, there is no greater establishment in our amazing country.
The other public school teacher with whom I credit my career
path is my 10th grade English teacher. She had us write an essay about what we’d
like to do with our lives. Before
beginning, I told her I was undecided about a career choice because even though
I wanted to teach, I worried about selling myself short. She leaned in close, looked me in the eye and
told me she never wanted me to think such a thing again. “There is no more honorable profession,” she
said emphatically.
I believed those six words the moment they came out of her mouth, and I’ve never stopped believing- not this week, and not ever. Politics and practices will change, but the principles behind public schools won’t change. There's an army of honorable public educators who love children and believe in doing what’s right that can promise you that.
No comments