Civics 101 is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Do you like middle school? I loved middle school. That's when I really came into my own in theater.

I did great middle school. How about you Nick? This was like the apex of my media activity as a

human. Like I had a tough time in this school. Wow. Your media, great. What does that even mean?

I was just like this was like when I was the most awkward, like, had no idea who it was or what

I was doing. Yeah, but that's every human being on the face of the planet.

In morning, I met the early middle school where we were active learners, critical

figures in our own fields of defense. Today is Thursday, March 28th in the time of 2050. Please stand

for the federal agent.

The lip sync battle will take place on April 3rd at 630 in the cafeteria. Attention all lip sync

participants. This is a mandatory dress rehearsal Monday, April 1st after school. I'm Nick

Capady-Jay and I'm Hannah McCarthy. This is Civics 101, our life stages series. And today we're

going to school. If I sound a little pathetic there, it's because Hannah and I weren't just

visiting a random middle school. We were visiting my old school, Maramaq Valley Middle School,

which was a great school. I played logo. I watched all the presidents men, but it had been 25 years

and it smelled exactly the same. And all that stuff just came flooding back. I wonder, can you just

opt out? Do you even have to go to school? No. I know that no. Yeah, that's Dan Casino,

political science professor at Fairly Dickinson University. And this is actually kind of weird.

This is one of those ways in which America is exceptional that we're different than other parts of

the world. So if you were in France, you wouldn't have a choice about whether or not your kid was going

to public school. Everyone goes to school. You don't have a choice. If you want to send your

kid to church afterwards, great. Have a blast. But you have to send your kid to the public school.

...