"Our School is Awesome" motto sweeping DC

Striped shirt guy:  "What the hell is Po-Po?? "

Schoolkids are back in classes this morning at D.C. public and charter schools. To get everyone in that back-to-school mood, here’s the students of Fairlawn’s Benjamin Orr Elementary telling us just how awesome their school is.
“Our School is Awesome” is a collaboration between local video production outfit Sun Chase Media and Orr administrators and students, who showed up in uniform on Saturdays to shoot the film earlier this year, said Principal Michelle Edwards. Also awesome: The shirt Police Chief Cathy Lanier was rocking while participating in Beautification Day festivities Saturday.

Yeah, they can talk all they want about "positive messaging" and "building confidence" and shooting cool videos but the smart students will recognize this for exactly what it is:  blatant brainwashing.  When November rolls around and its freezing, and you can't go outside anymore, and you'd rather suffocate yourself with your pillow case then go to school...that's when the school administration rolls out the "Our School is Awesome" video.  "See!!  See??? Remember this everyone?  Our school is awesome!!"  There IS one way to throw this entire campaign off track...



This inflamatory t-shirt once brought Springfield Elementary to its knees 

 I think every time I started a new school year with my new notebooks, clean desk, pens and pencils all lined up neatly I really thought "this is it, this is the year, I'm going to turn my academic career right around yessir!".  And this wasn't limited to grade school, I remember telling myself this straight through high school.  A new year is a fresh start, new teachers who don't know your tricks and excuses - its a clean slate is what it is.  Naturally, within 2 days I remembered "Oh right...I hate this goddamn place" and reverted to cutting every single academic corner I possibly could. 

Pretty sure that's the direction Benjamin Orr Elementary is going..."Our School is Awesome!" will be a distant memory by Columbus Day.

Skinner: So: we meet again, Mad Magazine.
   Bart: How do you know it's from Mad?
Skinner: [walking to his window] The year was 1968.  We were on recon in
         a steaming Mekong delta.  An overheated private removed his
         flak jacket, revealing a T-shirt with an iron-on sporting the
         Mad slogan "Up With Mini-Skirts".
         Well, we all had a good laugh, even though I didn't quite
         understand it.  But our momentary lapse of concentration
         allowed Charlie to get the drop on us.
         I spent the next three years in a POW camp, forced to subsist
         on a thin stew of fish, vegetables, prawns, coconut milk, and
         four kinds of rice.  I came close to madness trying to find it
         here in the States, but they just can't get the spices right --
   Bart: Uh, my punishment?
Skinner: Hmm?  Oh, I'm going to have to think about that.  Meanwhile,
         wear this home.
          [puts a seat pillow over Bart's torso and zips it up]