When I was growing up, I thought I had a pretty good view of the world. After all, I knew kids who went to a whole lot of different private schools. Now that I have watched my daughter go through one year and a few weeks of public school, I realize how much I didn\u2019t know back then.<\/p>\n
I have had nieces and nephews go through public school, and my wife is a public school graduate.<\/p>\n
But I\u2019m finding out little by little that my image of public school is way out of whack with reality.<\/p>\n
I put in a lot of time and effort as a teenager forming that image by watching John Hughes movies over and over again. Imagine my surprise when I found out that 80s movies did not accurately portray life in a public school.<\/p>\n
I figured that maybe my other source of information was more accurate, but then my wife told me that \u201cSaved by the Bell\u201d wasn\u2019t accurate either.<\/p>\n
I was crushed. What is life coming to when you find out that John Bender and Zack Morris were merely fictional characters and not true representations of public school students?<\/p>\n
Now I have to prepare myself totally differently for when Bridget grows up. This is going to take some time getting used to.<\/p>\n
I had figured that she would fit easily into one of the clearly-defined social groups that public school offered. The athletes didn\u2019t mix with the smart kids who didn\u2019t mix with the artsy kids who didn\u2019t mix with the stoners.<\/p>\n
I figured everybody believed that. How else can you explain the popularity of \u201cThe Breakfast Club?\u201d As a wrestler, I could poke holes in the Emilio Estevez character, but I figured John Hughes nailed everything else perfectly.<\/p>\n
The only way those worlds could collide was through a Saturday detention with limited attendance or through love that could not be denied regardless of different social circles.<\/p>\n
And that wasn\u2019t always easy because you needed a special dance or a big party for the two teens to realize that their love and their love only could bride the gap between the cliques.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where The Smiths or the Thompson Twins or The Psychedelic Furs came into the picture. Because artsy-looking New Wave bands from England were the glue that held together clich\u00e9s about public schools.<\/p>\n
Now I have to face a whole different world. I have to try and wrap my mind around the thought that Bridget and her friends might live in a world that would blow John Hughes\u2019 mind.<\/p>\n
She might go to a school where the jocks don\u2019t all gang up on the smart kids. And where the kid who wears quirky thrift-store clothes just might have a chance with the head cheerleader. Her teachers might fall somewhere between incredibly laid back and really uptight.<\/p>\n
Imagine the possibilities.<\/p>\n
Even though I have learned all this, I won\u2019t stop trusting television and movies. Because that\u2019s where I get all my real information. The rest of the world is just out to confuse me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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