OutKick Readers And Staff Share Their Biggest School Gripes

It's Tuesday, which means it's as good a time as any to do some bitchin' and moanin' with the latest edition of The Gripe Report.

Last week, in an edition that will probably someday wind up in the Library of Congress because of its historical significance, I laid out some of my biggest school gripes, just like how your mom laid out your school clothes back in the day (or how your wife may these days). We covered everything from the buses to math to having dreams that you're still in high school, even though you've been out of school for years.

But this week, I'm turning the keys over to readers and even a couple of OutKick staffers who you may be familiar with, who chimed in via email as well as on the Gripe Report X account!

Have a gripe? Send it in!: matthew.reigle@outkick.com

So, enough of my jabber-jawing. Class is back in session after a one-week recess, so the teacher can sleep off a hangover.

School Calendars

Beau is going to bat lead off for us with a gripe about school calendars, specifically the names used in them:

I never understood the way the holiday names got thrown out, but it's definitely a regular thing these days. 

I kind of get "Winter Break" or "Holiday Break" because multiple holidays are happening during that stretch, but why are people gun-shy about Thanksgiving and Easter?

Is it because not everyone celebrates it? I can tell you this: when I was a kid, I didn't care what the reason was; if we got off from school, I was all about it. If they were like, "Have a happy Diwali!" and gave me off from school, I'd be so pumped even though I don't celebrate. Hell, I only know what it is because of that one episode of The Office.

Also, if you're offended by a calendar… just seek help. You need it.

An artist's conception of your inbox when your kid's school insists on sending you emails about everything. (Getty Images)

An Overabundance Of Emails

OutKick's own Screencaps guru Joe Kinsey has chimed in on this one, and he has a problem with school email communique:

I don't have any kids, but I do have a dog and ample free time. Therefore, I'm not getting inundated with school emails, but boy, I'm sure a lot of you are.

It's one of those things that really illustrates how much times have changed. When I was starting school 25 years ago, they weren't emailing parents about stuff. But do you know what else they weren't doing? They weren't giving us little notes and flyers to take home to mom and dad (or more likely leave crumpled at the bottom of our Jansport backpacks; '90s and early-aughts kids represent!).

Do people need constant reports and briefings like they're the president? I mean, for important stuff, by all means, but I'm sure most of the stuff that's clogging your inbox and making it harder to track down the good stuff in there, like the latest edition of your favorite OutKick newsletters, is totally unnecessary.

When I was a kid, my parents would just ask what I did at school today, and I would tell them about math class. Simple.

Of course, I'd leave out the part about accidentally drilling the substitute teacher in the head with a kickball at recess, but that was on a need-to-know basis.

This dude pays a ton of money to send his young kids to an expensive preschool and all he has to show for it is bronchitis. (Getty Images)

Illnesses

We've heard from the Screencaps camp, now let's hear from the Nightcaps camp.

Our own Zach Dean has offered his biggest complaint when it comes to school, and I feel like this one will hit home for many of you in the most literal sense imaginable.

One of the things that always made me chuckle about people who were adamant that schools get shut down during COVID was that they seem to be forgetting that illnesses have been passed through schools since the beginning of time. 

I'm sure some cavemen fathers missed work at the quarry because their kids picked something up at their cave school.

…Actually, that may have been the plot of an episode of The Flintstones, but the point still stands.

When I was a kid, H1N1, or swine flu, swept through my school. We all survived, but it was middle school, which meant that we just made fun of the kids who had swine flu by oinking at them.

Good times.

Unfortunately, kids are walking petri dishes, which means it's inevitable that something will come to your house at some point this school year.

So, godspeed, and maybe put some Saltine crackers, Pedialyte, and Imodium in your Amazon cart ahead of time as a "Break Glass in Case of Emergency" plan.

Parents

We've heard from some parents, but now, let's shift gears and let a teacher give us some insights about parents.

Give 'em hell, Shari!:

This may be rather specific to a sect of life, but my gripe is with how parents these days are neglecting to parent their children, then try to blame teachers and public education for their child being an idiot who cannot read, behave in public, or finish a simple task.

I teach High School English, and the number of parents who claim they "don’t know what to do with their kid" when it comes to the failing grades and bad attitude baffles me. I have had parents act like they have no power or influence in their child’s life, then turn around and scream at the school secretary, me, and the principal when we follow school policy and take their phone away or kick them out of class because they had Instagram open in class.

…

Talk to any teacher, and they will have a gripe that is similar to, if not exactly the same as, this one from Shari.

Parents are sometimes the most brutal thing about being a teacher, because of how difficult they can be and how they can even be detrimental to their child's education.

If you think about it, kids are only in school for about 6-8 hours a day, five days a week, for 9 months a year. The rest of that time, they're with their parents or guardians. Therefore, you can't just blame everything on the teacher if your kid is having some troubles in school.

This feels like a new thing, too. Again, I only graduated high school 11 years ago, and this was starting to happen, but it was still pretty rare.

Let the teachers do their thing, and if you've got to get frustrated over a few math problems later that evening, it's for the good of the youngin' what sprang from your loins.

…

 That was a good griping sesh. Might need to refuel with a brown bag lunch consisting of an Uncrustable, a ziploc bag full of Doritos, a Capri Sun (Pacific Cooler, please), and an orange that I'm just going to throw away or at some nerd.

Anyway, if you've got any gripes for the next edition of The Gripe Report, send them in!: matthew.reigle@outkick.com