A rideshare passenger this morning told me Austin’s public schools (the ones for kids, not the big ol’ college) start today.
I called him a liar.
It turns out he was, in fact, wrong, and I was justified in making him miss his flight by pulling over on the side of an overpass and lecturing him on the importance of integrity (just kidding, we had a good time—he likes Javy Báez).
But boy, they start school early down here.
Having grown up in a mostly white, middle to upper-middle class town, I tend to assume that every human being has had the same experiences I’ve had. But it turns out that in the South, they start school a little bit earlier than Yankees and Midwesterners (fun fact: Nobody knows when the Western half of the U.S. starts school. It’s like what sank the Titanic. Complete mystery.).
Here in Austin, the first day of public school is August 20th, which is the same it is in Dallas. Pretty early, but not obscene—like, say, August 12th would be, which is today, and is when Atlanta Public Schools get going. And if you, like me, are offended by that, get a load of this: Atlanta Public Schools started the last two years on August 1st, in an apparent attempt to broil children while not letting them come home and hear about their dad’s (or dads’) fantasy football draft(s) until school was at least a few weeks old.
Outrageous, I say.
Anyway, in case you were wondering, the children are not back in school here in Austin. So no need to report your neighbors to the truant officer.
Yet.
