Why Am I Here?
That’s the question I ask myself almost everyday when I’m sitting in class trying to figure out how I’m going to use the material I’m learning later on in life.
Am I ridiculous for thinking this?
I almost questioned an adult before publishing this but then I thought to myself, why does their opinion matter? I’m the one who has to cope with my opposition to high school education. Maybe it’s because I haven’t asked, but I don’t think my parents ever dissented school as much as I did. Maybe it’s the school system I’m in? Maybe it’s just public education in general? Maybe it’s just my state? I guess I’ll just speak on experience. 4 years of High School education is purposeless — the curriculum, my bad — is purposeless. There comes a certain point when a student is going to become sick and tired of learning the same thing over and over and over again. We don’t want to hear about World War 1 anymore. We don’t want to learn how to graph a parabola anymore. We don’t care to know Charles Darwin’s theory about evolution in biology or how to calculate the acceleration of a ball at a speed of 20 m/s. WHO CARES?
The issue I have has to do with the fact that: I’m not understanding the reason for learning the things we do. There is a very minimal amount of information that I’m going to graduate with and use throughout the rest of my life. Of course learning the basics in grades K-5 is necessary to develop a certain level of intelligence and maybe one or two years in middle school, but after a while, it’s time to discover something new. A drastic change should occur between 8th and 9th grade. Teachers should not be so pressed about the clothes on my body or how often I need to use the restroom. Teachers should not be teaching me if they don’t enjoy what they do and cause me to suffer because of it. Teachers should be focused on helping me learn lessons that will benefit me long after I’ve graduated. Teachers should not treat us like we’re incapable of acting on our own. WE’VE GROWN UP.
The curriculum we learn is so purposeless because what are we actually learning? Half of the work we complete is pulled straight out of our ass solely to get it done. I would estimate a very small percentage of students who truly enjoy completing the work we’re assigned. 3 out of 4 years in high school we have to pass a Literature class and all of it is hours of pointless translation of writing styles and languages that are not used anymore. We take 2 algebra classes, a geometry class, and a calculus class and after 12 years of education I will only have a general idea of how taxes, mortgages, tips, bills, or loans work but I’ll sure as hell know how to solve for the missing variable. Thanks for that. Furthermore, unless you want to be a scientist, 4 MORE years of science after 8 already is non beneficial. What am I going to be able to do, tell you when a plant is photo-synthesizing? And lastly, why am I still learning about the past in history class for 12 years when we are progressing into the future. I understand the popular phrase ,“To know your future you must know your past”, but there comes a time when learning about the World Wars gets old. Not only that but we learn more about the history of other countries than we do of America. We don’t discuss the current issues of our world, what’s being discovered, advances in the medical field, the bills Congress are passing or anything in relation. We learn more about what’s happened than what’s happening. I could tell you countless facts about what’s happened from the 1700's to the 1900's but I couldn’t tell you any prominent facts about what’s happened to other countries, let alone America, within the past 5 years. And let’s not forget about the first year in college spent learning the same curriculum yet another time. CAN WE MOVE ON?
I just think students should be able to test out other areas of profession besides the core curriculum and the generic art, business, or technology classes before only being given roughly 4 years to figure out what they want to do for the rest of their life. Repeatedly learning the same material for 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, with 2 hours of homework after school (which isn’t even necessary because why isn’t 7 hours of instruction enough?)and approximately 3 hours of homework over the weekend, doesn’t give students much time at all to explore various types of professions. It’s such a shame how my performance in standard based classes potentially determines the rest of my future. It’s such a shame that colleges predict my success in their school from my knowledge in courses like physics, pre-calculus and American literature where I could be going to study Fashion Merchandising or Sports Marketing. Where is the correlation? I’d love to know. I truly believe standardized scores mean nothing. They don’t really measure how much information you know, they measure how well you can remember it. A majority of our school experience is spent stressing over grades in classes that won’t matter 10 years from now.
I guess all I’m wondering is am I being ridiculous for even thinking this? Is there something that I’m not understanding? I just don’t feel it’s right that there are students who seriously consider dropping out or who genuinely hate going to school. Because honestly, what’s the point of it all? Especially for people who just want to sing, for example, or act, design clothes or play a professional sport. Why do we have to sit in school for 12 years, 5 days a week, 8 hours a day and learn material we will never use? I’m not saying I don’t value education. I’m saying education should not be subjected to only four cores of curriculum for twelve years. I’m saying there could be other ways of communicating the material we have to learn into more applicable situations.
Am I ridiculous for thinking this?
Maybe I am.
