Skipped? How Do You Even Do That?

I was the oldest son born to parents who were bound and determined to make sure I was smart. Or at least not stupid. Since it was the 1970s, there weren’t a lot of credible do-it-yourself options for that, so I wound up in a Montessori preschool when young. Thanks to the Montessori method and a dutiful East Indian facilitator, I already knew everything public-school kindergarten would have taught me, and my mother force-of-natured the school into just advancing me a grade. You know how moms can be.

Confessions of an Underserved Public School Graduate

Public school is a vast obstacle course of awful things (haven’t the last few years driven that home—almost literally). It’s best not to spend any longer there than you absolutely must. My August birthday meant I was always youngest in my class, and my … determined parents meant I shaved a few years off the whole thing. That meant I was an outsider for most of it. It taught me some things.

I’m also riffing on Robert Fulghum. Fulghum’s book is arguably an ode to the “it takes a village” rhetoric of social engineering. But if everything anyone needs to know is available in kindergarten, and I skipped that year, then how did I learn anything? Did my parents’ work pay off? Am I smart? Who can say, really?

Let’s see.

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Confessions of an underserved public school graduate

People

Christian and libertarian trying to keep it civil since the '70s. MA History, Alpha Chi NCHS, Second Amendment Foundation, Mises Institute, Eagle Scout. And underserved public school graduate. I don't get offended. Just disappointed.