Looking back on when my public school did something right
It’s almost impossible for me to admit a public school did something right, but there was one thing my old grade school hit a home run on.
If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know how I feel about public school. It sucks, and there’s little you can do to change my mind on that.
Trust me, just ask a few of my gym friends who tell me about all the extracurricular activities their kids can engage in these days that apparently include STEM.
To the normie, their public schools are doing them a favor, offering more now than ever before. But they don’t understand that the longer their kids are in school, school hours or not, the longer they’re under the state’s thumb.
That has drawbacks. One of which I can name off the bat is that it diminishes family time, which the state is A-okay with. Families, churches, and even tight-knit communities that engage in activities not attached to one’s local public school are direct competition to the state, and the state knows it.
I can go on and on about this, but that’s not the point of this post. Instead, let’s talk about the one thing my grade school did that still earns my endorsement to this day.
No, it’s not because the school is now church property
When I was growing up, my local church (yes, TC Marti has been to church before, go figure) wanted to build a community center and spent years acquiring private funds. That means they didn’t rely on public funds to help build this thing.
But, when my school district ultimately shuttered all but one grade school that was around before the 1999-00 year, mine got the ax in 2012, if I’m not mistaken, it was fair game. The church bought the place, and it’s been a thriving community center ever since.
I’m glad to see that they repurposed the building, but I was also glad to see, way back during that 1999-00 school year, that the teachers took it upon themselves to fix the courtyard in the middle of the place.
From a vacant piece of blacktop to a thriving courtyard
Well, you couldn’t call it a courtyard, I’ll tell you that much. Hell, it was nothing more than blacktop with a rusted swing set and slide. I’m sure my cousin has the old paperback yearbook under his bed somewhere, with a photo inside it that says, “What a difference a year makes!”
The top photo had that old swing set and slide. As for the bottom picture? It depicted a magnificent courtyard, with lush grasses, growing trees, a small pond, and stepping stones.
I’m sure that, if I went out that way and got into the courtyard, I’d find the one I made. I put in red, orange, and yellow gemstones in the shape of a flame that was supposed to depict the flaming tip on Charmander’s, Chameleon’s, and Charizard’s tails.
And guess what? I injected that same courtyard into Scorpii School in The Arcane Prophecy. While Scorpii and the Arcane Elemental Academy are completely private and entrepreneurial-driven, I unconsciously thought about that courtyard when I wrote the following:
Their instructor, Dr. Rayne Grimbane, a young woman with a thick curtain of black hair that would have even made Jett envious, led them into one of Scorpii School’s many courtyards. This one contained a winding trail of stepping stones decorated in jewels from one end of the yard to the other. It led to a small, manmade pond with colorful flowers flanking the shoreline, and oak trees whose lengthy branches would provide shade until the first frost.
It wasn’t until today that the lightbulb turned on in my head, and I realized I was thinking of that old courtyard. At that point, I told myself, “This is going to be a blog article,” and it’ll probably find its way onto my Substack, Rune-Written Resistance.
It’s crazy how the unconscious mind can work
Listen, you know by now that I hated public school and always will. I never looked forward to going there. Not in grade school, and definitely not in middle school and high school.
Its fond memories are few and far between, and the only times when it was remotely tolerable was when I had gym or weight training class. If I were lucky, I’d have a teacher who at least made their class somewhat entertaining.
But that’s about as good as it got for me. I mean, who wants to take a bus to a place for seven to eight hours a day, eat and drink when you’re allowed to, recite a poem every day that a socialist wrote while engaging in modern-day idol worship, silently stand in line while walking in cinder block hallways, and sit in uncomfortable desks while hearing teachers drone about nothing that I’ll use in the future?
And somehow, society expects you to tell these people ‘thank you?’ I mean, that’s Statism 101. Still, it’s not to say there weren’t hidden gems, like that old courtyard, which sat undetected in my unconscious mind this whole time.
Funny how that works.
Anyway, if The Arcane Prophecy sounds like your kind of rebellion, grab its prequel, Arcane Awakenings. It’s got elemental magic, ancient runes, a fiery female lead—and none of that state-approved messaging.
