Recently, I was working on my campus with someone in the Student Success Center on perfecting my resume for my clinical placement in the public school system. As we were working through all of my experiences, both in the classroom and out, she looked back at where I graduated high school from. She told me, “Considering where you went to school, you have created quite a success for yourself.” At first, I took this as a compliment; she thought I was a successful young woman. But as I thought more on this comment, I started to feel defensive. Of course I am successful, I had so many thoughtful teachers who didn’t just see me as a face in the halls, but as a person. I had many teachers and administrators pushing me down the right path, right into the hands of a prestigious college. Public school did that, public school has put me on the map and been my guiding light through my educational process.

As I work through my clinical hours and education classes in preparation for being a teacher in the public school system, it physically makes me ill that our new Secretary of Education has no idea what public education even stands for. IDEA? Individuals with Disabilities Education Act? Yeah, this is a bill that has been in place for years and our new Secretary of Education has no clue what that means. Someone who is in power should have educational experience, right? One hundred plus hours before student teaching for an entire semester, and then decades of classroom management behind them? Guess not, so what’s the point in me paying for a degree to even be in the schools if the woman running them didn’t have to!

Now, public education is flawed. But, hear me out on this one. My clinical students are currently studying utopias, dystopias, and Orwell’s 1984. At the start of the unit, my cooperating teacher asked the students what is something about the United States they are grateful for. And I am not even exaggerating when I say that at least one student in each class period said, “public education.” So these seventeen and eighteen year old children, who haven’t necessarily been exposed to the real world too much, know how amazing it is that every single person in our nation has the right to attend school.

The meals provided by schools are the only meals some children will have that day. The books provided by the schools are the only texts some children will have in their hands. The encouragement provided by the schools and teachers are the only kind words some children hear from day to day. So before you decide to bash our school system, think of all the lives saved and hearts touched through the system. I am proud to be a product of public schools, and I am proud that I will be able to give back through my career as a teacher.