In my 10+ years of teaching, "school sucks"  is perhaps the most common phrase I've heard students use to describe their feelings about public education. But this seemingly bitter and reductive slogan is actually quite clever. When taken literally, "school sucks"  is perhaps the most accurate and astute synopsis of the system I've ever heard. Here's why...

1. The twelve-year process of an American public education has a dramatic effect on the mind of a child. When we first enter school at age six, many of our best personal attributes are already in place. We are curious, innovative, unique, creative and hopeful in ways that we will rarely be able to replicate throughout the rest of our lives. But over time, school sucks those essential attributes out of too many of us...and replaces them with predictability, obedience and apathy.   

2. The public school system sucks off the productive capacity of hard-working people. The system is funded through taxation.  In other words, whether public education succeeds or fails (spoiler alert: it fails) at providing real education to the public, the cost goes up every year. There are no refunds.