Dave Grohl has given a passionate defense of public schools, and their teachers, while laying some pretty heavy criticism on President Donald Trump’s administration. In Dave’s True Stories, a new audio series that debuted on Wednesday, the nearly unstoppable Foo Fighters frontman delivered an almost nine-minute monologue titled “In Defense of Our Teachers.” A written version of the speech also appeared in The Atlantic.
“I hate to break it to you, but I was a terrible student,” Grohl said at one point. “Each day, I desperately waited for the final bell to ring so that I could be released from the confines of my stuffy, windowless classroom and run home to my guitar. It was no fault of the Fairfax County Public Schools system, mind you; it did the best it could. I was just stubbornly disengaged, impeded by a raging case of ADD and an insatiable desire to play music. Far from being a model student, I tried my best to maintain focus but eventually left school halfway through 11th grade to follow my dreams of becoming a professional touring musician. (Not advised.) “
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Grohl also spoke about his mother, who was an educator herself. “My mother was a public-school teacher. As a single mother of two, she tirelessly devoted her life to the service of others, both at home and at work,” Grohl explained. “Teachers want to teach, not die, and we should support and protect them like the national treasures that they are,” he added. “For without them, where would we be? May we show these tireless altruists a little altruism in return. I would for my favorite teacher. Wouldn’t you?”
The auditory essay comes as the Trump administration has been insisting that schools reopen for the rapidly approaching fall semester, even though coronavirus cases are still surging in several parts of the country. “The president has said unmistakably that he wants schools to open,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters on July 17. She also earned a considerable amount of blowback after asserting that “the science should not stand in the way of this.”
McEnany went on to say that “the science is very clear on this” when referring to reopening, including a study about the relatively low-level fatalities resulting from COVID-19. “The science is on our side here,” McEnany continued. “It’s very damaging to our children,” she concluded, claiming various unaddressed social issues from home-schooling.
