A wide, cinematic digital painting contrasting forced public-school nostalgia with the harsh reality behind it. Left side: a bright, overly saturated yearbook-style collage—smiling students frozen in staged poses, glossy lockers, confetti, and a cartoonishly cheerful mascot. Everything looks fake, airbrushed, almost propaganda-like. Right side: the real environment—fluorescent-lit hallways, peeling paint, exhausted students trudging past metal detectors, dreary classrooms with standardized posters and bored faces. In the center foreground, a single student stands facing forward, split by the two worlds—half illuminated by the artificial pastel glow of the yearbook fantasy, half lit by the cold, institutional lighting of reality. Subtle background details include surveillance cameras, bell schedules, and shadowy faculty silhouettes on the right; while on the left, the lighting blooms with unrealistic perfection. Color palette shifts from artificial neons and soft pastels on the left to muted grays, sickly greens, and institutional beige on the right. Mood: raw, symbolic, anti-nostalgic. Wide aspect ratio, painterly realism. No text overlay.

7 reasons your old buddies romanticize public school

ByTC Marti

Your public school yearbook probably claimed the student body “had the times of our lives.” It’s lying, and your old buddies fell for it. 

If you’re here, I’m going to assume you didn’t fall for it, but are looking for reasons why everyone around you is. Well, you’re in luck, because below, I got seven items telling you exactly why just about everyone you know keeps falling for the ruse that public school must be romanticized, and not condemned.

1 – Cherry-picking yearbook

Ever open a yearbook? In it, you’ll see just about everyone smiling and having a good time. And as the years go by, yearbooks are the top propaganda tool that romanticizes school, making you slowly forget about the daily drudgery that went on about 99 percent of the time, like sitting in class at an uncomfortable desk between six and eight periods.

2 – Extracurriculars

This is a huge one. Without public school, who would provide extracurriculars? Honestly, if we were conditioned to believe grocery stores had to be government-run, those same people would be asking who would provide food? Obviously, the market.

If the demand is high enough, the market would offer extracurriculars that would actually make money. Just like travel sports, martial arts studios, travel teams, and club sports. So, why are we even having a discussion about public school-provided extracurriculars?

3 – Making friends their age

One of my biggest gripes of public school: They don’t enhance, but limit, one’s social skills. Popular belief tells you homeschooling does this, but I digress. The homeschooled kid, in practice, isn’t confined unless the parent is literally keeping them at home, which is rare.

Making friends in one’s own age group and limiting interaction with other age groups unless you count school faculty, artificially curtails one’s social network. No adult spends 12 years surrounded exclusively by people their exact age unless they’re in prison, which many public schools are starting to resemble.

4 – Public school drama

You won’t believe how many people still talk about sh*t that happened before one of my favorite K-pop singers, Gyubin, was born. Like seriously, are we still doing this?

Does it really affect our lives in any positive way, shape, or form, to talk about drama that, somehow, is still entertaining nearly two decades later and counting? Drama becomes myth because some people don’t grow past their formative environment.

5 – The occasional “fun class”

Ironically enough, the occasional “fun class” deviated from the rigid curriculum. They were memorable outliers and the reason you remember them to this day is because they lacked a traditional structure.

If the Board of Education found out about half of what was going on in those classes, they would’ve been just as forgettable as your tenth-grade English class.

6 – They think “adulting” sucks

Adulting and everything that comes with it is subjective. Anyone who thinks adulting sucks is choosing to focus on the suckish parts, like taxes, bills, etc. What they’re really doing is putting themselves into survival mode.

Wonder where they were conditioned to think and feel that way? If you answered with public school, then congratulations. Your critical thinking survived the indoctrination.

7 – They were told to romanticize public school

The Arcane Prophecy by TC MartiEveryone, from their parents to the teachers, love telling you that your “school days are the best days of your life.” Well, when you’re conditioned to believe adulting sucks, and when you find it harder to interact with older people, bosses, and other authority figures because of the respect demanded from you in said public school institutions, yeah, you’re going to romanticize the place. My recommendation? Decondition yourself.

Now, how can you decondition yourself? One way is to write fiction, or if you don’t want to write it, then read some. My young adult fantasy, The Arcane Prophecy, kicks public school to the curb and introduces one effective, market-driven education model.

It also takes place in a market-driven society that lacks an overbearing State. And best yet, it’s just Book I in a five-book series. Check out the first three chapters of a YA fantasy that actually respects your intelligence.

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