Introduction

(Author's note: This was originally published on myspace with an intended audience of high school students. Please don't assume I'm talking "down" at my peers. Many of the reposts from my early days will have a target audience. I shifted the target as my audience became primarily adult).

There is something inherently insane about being both a Libertarian and a public school teacher. After all, if the Libertarians had their way, there would no longer exist a free, compulsory public education system. Education would be left up to parents. It would cost. Parents could choose what kind of education their child should receive, where they would receive it, and at what age they could finally throw in the towel and send the kid to work. In the meantime, I work for a public school...and it sure as hell is compulsory for almost every kid in attendance.

Lessons I learned as a product of the public school system:

1. If you are really smart, you become educated in spite of the public school system and not because of it. In general, there is much angst that goes along with this. Being smarter than your teachers sucks. I have been privileged to have a few students who were smarter than me. I enjoyed the challenge. What a treat!

2. If you are one of the eighty percent of the world who can be considered "normal" (you can look that one up, but it won't help - never have found a definition of that word that works for me), then you will sort of coast through, struggling a bit here and there with a subject or a particular teacher, maybe with a suspension or two for a little rebellion. A fight here, a cigarette there. No biggie. You muddle through, wind up in a JC or University, muddle through some more, and eventually have relatively successful lives.