But unlike too many real-life
schools, the kids are able to change
courses if they demonstrate new 4 00:03:23,100 --> 00:00:00,631 abilities.
'Cause your life as you know it is
ancient history.
I have suffered in this jail. I've been trapped inside this cage for
ages, this living hell. But if I try I can remember back before my life
had ended, before my happy days were over, before I first heard the
pealing of the bell.
Have you ever noticed that most of
the schools we see in movies and TV,
read about in novels or even
hear about in songs are terrible,
rotten places?
What is this place?
It is a prison
for children.
Where you're likely to get pig's
blood dumped on you at prom,
get beaten up on the playground
or humiliated by classmates
and teachers alike.
We take for granted that
K-through-12 education is like
living in Orwell's 1984
or serving a prison sentence.
Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone!
But there are exceptions in fiction
and in real life.
When you get to choose where you go
to school, you're guaranteed a
better experience because you've
picked a place where you actually
want to be and that will treat
you well because they know you can
leave if you want to.
Currently, only about a quarter of
K-through-12 students attend
something other than their local
public schools, places like
charters, magnets, or private
institutions or home school.
If more kids had more choice,
schools would do a better job of
responding to their specific needs
and helping them become the best
version of themselves.
There's no one size fits all in
education any more than there is
in clothing or shoes.
Here are three fictional schools
which are great not because they're
right for everyone, but
because they meet the unique needs
of their particular students.
Hello, Scott.
Welcome to the School for the
Gifted.
You're enrolled.
Entry to Professor X's Academy
of Superpowered Mutants is by
invitation only,
but it comes with a free ride and
a promise to learn how to control
and master each student's special
powers.
Professor X and his faculty hold
everyone to exacting high standards,
but also make sure nobody slips
through the cracks, the sort of
attention that is all too lacking in
schools that take students and
the tuition dollars they represent
for granted.
...everybody's looking for something
Hang on back there.
Here we go.
Welcome to Sky High.
2005's Sky High showcased
another superhero high school,
one filled with comic takes on
traditional school drama.
But it also featured gym classes
that actually seemed worth taking.
You have three minutes to immobilize your opponents and
save the citizen.
Remember when we used to use real
citizens?
The students are quickly
assigned to either a hero track
if they display superpowers or a
sidekick track if they don't.
Hero and a handsome
one at that.
I'm strong? He's super strong.
Dear Mr. Potter, we
are pleased to inform you that you
have been accepted at Hogwarts
School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
You're a wizard, Harry.
And of course, there's Hogwarts
School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The school at the center of the
Harry Potter series.
Modeled on hidebound British
boarding schools and century-old
universities like Oxford and
Cambridge, Hogwarts is filled with
bullies, arbitrary rules, customs
and demanding teachers.
But in the end, what makes this
institution unique is the philosophy
of its headmaster, Albus Dumbledore,
who forces his greatest pupil
to master not only the magical arts,
but a basic philosophical maxim
too.
It is not our abilities that
show what we truly are.
It is our choices.
These places are wonderful because
they don't take their students for
granted. They take them seriously
and push them toward excellence and
accomplishment while treating them
as unique individuals.
Schools don't need to be dreary,
downbeat hellholes, whether
we're talking movies or real life.
If more of us get to choose where
we go, we'll be smarter, happier,
and maybe even better adjusted.
And our movies will eventually
reflect that.
No McFly ever amounted to anything
in the history of Hill Valley.
Yeah, well, history is gonna change.