I had a migraine after I read Johnson's essay.  

I do, however, agree with Johnson about the discomfort some classrooms can give students.  There were times in school where I really felt like I couldn’t keep up with the educational standards.  There were certain concepts I just couldn’t get right away, especially in math, and I felt like I was left behind.  I didn’t ask for help because I didn’t really want to look slow to my classmates or teacher.  It's my fault for not asking, but I was a kid trying to fit in....Anyway,  she always emphasized how fractions were important to master in the fifth grade, and that if you didn’t master it, you will be left behind in high school and that you’ll probably never get it.  I believed her and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.  I didn't want to be a part of school anymore because I felt I couldn't keep up.  I had that “I don’t get it so why bother?” attitude  and so it wasn’t until college that I finally learned how to add/subtract fractions.  Sad.  It took me so long to get over that mindset.  So I can personally understand why most struggling students would say “school sucks” or sing those anti-school melodies according to Johnson.  I only started to really listen to those negative attitudes and songs about school when I began struggling as a student in Junior High School and it only began with those school melodies.   In Junior High School I picked up my first Insane Clown Posse CD.  At that time, I could relate to their songs, though I didn’t literally want to kill anyone.  Listening to bands or groups like them was just a way fitting in and rebelling against an institution that I felt I wasn’t good enough for.   On top of all that, I really didn't see how anything I learned in school was relevant in my life at that time so my negative attitude towards school was there to stay.  

“I believe that school makes complete fools of our young men, because they see and hear nothing of ordinary life there”- Gaius Petronious Arbiter