...you can all go to hell.
My son started kindergarten a few weeks ago, and today went on his first school field trip, to the working farm owned by the district. It's the same farm I visited several times as a kid myself. They learned about tractors, fields, crops, produce, goats, chickens, turkeys, horses, donkeys, horses, cows, eggplants, green beans, haylofts and all sorts of other cool "farmy" stuff.
I know this because I attended as a helper parent. It was a big deal for both of us: My son's first field trip, and my first one as a parent. I even rode the bus with the kids (most of the parents drove to the farm separately, but I wanted the "full experience").
After spending 3 hours with 40 noisy kindergarteners, I have a newfound appreciation for everyone who works in public education--even the bus driver, whose job is to keep our most precious cargo safe & sound from point A to point B while driving the same horribly unsafe, bumpy carbon monoxide bombs around that we rode in when we were kids (in some cases, the exact same buses, I suspect).
I already appreciated the educational side and value of public education, but it wasn't until actually riding the bus with them, trying to corral them and keep them from wandering off, helping prevent them from getting bitten by a turkey or getting stuck by a prickle in a berry bush, that I realized how tough it is. It's hard enough keeping just my own kid safe and out of trouble; teachers have to do this for 20 or more at a time. And these were relatively well-behaved kindergarteners; I can't fathom how bad it is in communities where parents tend not to give a crap, which I know exist.
I'll say it flat out: Forget the actual educational side of the process; these people deserve the salaries they receive just for taking care of our kids 35 hours a week alone. Oh, and they also, you know, TEACH THEM STUFF as well.