Public High School is a Misery Factory

I know. I know. Somebody just read that and rolled their eyes so hard it gave them a headache but let's be honest about this. You have a thousand kids trapped in a prison-like building with kids who are mean and crazy and teachers who either frequently sadistic, useless, burned out or just trying to survive the day until their retirement--I have several teachers in my family and both my father and mother in law taught in suburban Virginia schools. They all had stories that would curl your hair. Why is there so much misery at school? Well, it's cruelly designed system. Education is not the main point of high school or even elementary school for that matter. Babysitting and molding children to whatever society says is cool right now is the point.

 Talk to ten people who object to home schooling, private school or the hiring of professional teachers to come to your home and teach your child and they will all huff and sputter about "socialization."  What's socialization? Mostly it seems to be about crushing kids until they are like everybody else. If  your kid is a square peg in a round hole he will be picked at  and drugged if need be until he fits in that square peg or at least sits there quietly and doesn't get on the teacher's nerves. If your kid doesn't spout propaganda about the goodness of abortion  and the superiority of homosexuals then he will be harassed until he complies. This has nothing to do with education.

Ask ten people what they remember fondly about school and they'll mention the prom, being on the sports team, watching the football or basketball game, the homecoming parade or band or drama class. None of that aforementioned stuff has anything to do with academics. Highly ritualized and controlled social life is also part of the  molding process  and it functions like that of a hyena pack. Once your child gets "assigned" his place in the hierarchy of the pack that's it. Forever. If your child is an alpha or one of the cool kids in the core of the pack or even the Lone Wolf-but-we-like-him kid then things will be okay. If the cool kids decide that your child is  the one who all members of the pack may vent their hostility on that's it. Forever. In Disney movies the cool kids learn to like the outcast but it doesn't happen like that in real life. You can go to school and beg the teachers to watch your child and the threat of expulsion can be used to force the other's to leave their victim in peace but that's the best you can do. As I said before, I've heard a lot of teacher's candid stories. This will shock you but it's not uncommon for teachers to look a child who has been rejected by the pack the same way a farmer does who finds a piglet or lamb that has been rejected by it's mother. The farmer must decide if it's worth it to intervene or let nature take it's course.

In order to get your kid out of a bad situation you have to leave the school district. Most parents either can't or won't pack up and move abruptly so the misery goes on and since it's a rite of passage  that most of us went through, and turned out just fine (?), many parents unconsciously feel that they survived and their child is going to be a misfit if they aren't tough enough to survive it too. Why do we do this and how did it get this inhuman?