To my teachers: thank you for failing me

This year commemorates 25 years since I graduated high school. And I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all my guidance counselors and teachers for lying to me, deceiving me, and above all else, failing me when I needed their advice and know-how the most.

When I was in high school, I was so disillusioned with it that I hated going every day. I wanted to quit and drop out. Most of my family never finished high school, including my parents who were able to support a family of seven children including myself. So why should I?

But I was pestered and encouraged to stay and graduate, being told that dropouts earned way less in jobs than high school graduates. "Stay in school." That was the motto on the public service announcements back then. So I stayed and graduated.

Since then, I been from one menial job to another, never making more than $18,000 a year. I lived at home with my parents until I was 28. Then I got an apartment of my own which I struggle to keep along with the other expenses of living. Recently my car broke down, needing major repair which I don't have the money for.

And all around me, I see high school dropouts who are making out much better than I. They own homes, have great paying jobs and support families. They've been in trouble with the law, got their girlfriends pregnant and became parents at very young ages, They've done everything my teachers have tried to steer me away from, and they're living the American Dream while I'm living in poverty.

What's wrong with this picture here? It's completely upside down.

You teachers know nothing of the real world. About getting a job except for the ones in your classrooms. You know nothing about what it takes to survive.

I trusted you. But you used me to fill some kind of quota to say that here's another one through the system to keep the state from taking over our school. He can read, write, think, and hopefully register to vote. Just a few more years of this and we'll all retire in Florida with bags of oranges in our laps.

Stop lying to kids and telling them that a high school diploma is a guarantee in writing to the American Dream. It isn't.