This essay explores the suburban mythos that dominates the pedagogical scene of public-communication instruction. This scene both narrows the civic meaning of citizenship and constructs an unproblematic environment of professional acceptance. In doing so, it removes any serious discussion of the world of conflicted interests. As a remedy, this essay offers different "representative anecdotes" for public-communication instruction and argues that these alternative scenes create a closer relationship between scholarly theory and the discipline's basic-course instruction. (Contains 1 note.)