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Most people are fighting to get into private school. I fought to get out.
For three years, I attended a private middle school. Our books were always new, the food always organic and my teachers had one-on-one check-ins with us every week.
But something was missing. I would talk with my friends at lunch– all of them white and middle class like me– and not how we all had the same opinions and things to say. By 8th grade, it was getting really old.
Throughout middle school, people talked about public schools the same way you’d talk about city sewers. But I was fascinated. I wanted to meet people who were different than me and have friends who I could actually learn from.
In eighth grade, I decided to tour my local public high school. I was blown away by the sea of colorful faces, sporting all kinds of hairstyles, clothing and enormously wide smiles. In one day, I felt more at home then I had in my three years in private school.
Two years later, I’ve never looked back. It may not be elite, but it’s the best education I could have asked for.