I Hate School and Here's Why.

From age three to twenty-two, we are stuck in a constant cycle of work to prepare us for “the real world.” The problem is that when we get to this supposed “real world,” we have no idea how to function in it. 

The subjects we are taught in school -- Math, History, Sciences, and English -- don’t always directly correlate to our futures. I understand that learning how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide are very useful skills in life for everyday transactions, but when will I ever need to know how to factor a quadratic equation? Or which element has the most number of significant figures in chemical equations? 

The “facts” we are taught in school can not always be trusted, based on a history of non-accurate information. I wonder why most schools don’t teach history how it really went down, instead of just from a white hero perspective. For instance Christopher Columbus is still taught to be the first settler on American soil, but he “settled” on already claimed land. Another example is the inconsistency of math like which multiplication signs to use in equations.Why not just teach us the “dot” from the beginning instead of the “x” if we aren't supposed to use it in the future? English has a slight problem as well: comma placements. In our younger school years we are taught to put a comma anywhere we pause in a sentence, this is simply not true, it goes against grammar rules. And lastly sciences, we are taught that animals who go into hibernation eat a massive amount of food and then sleep for however long their hibernation lasts. That is a lie. Until fairly recently I had no idea that was not the case. The animals just slow down their normal actions. There are many flaws with how a dated education system is teaching the next generation that soon will be controlling the things we teach moving forward. Paving a way for the new generation by subconsciously encouraging us to force all freedom and creativity out of young minds is making us numb.

It is a known fact that most students now have the same anxiety and stress levels as psychiatric patients in the 1950’s. This stress of school causes some students to cope in unconventional ways. As time goes on, ages younger and younger are starting to use substances such as drugs or alcohol to relieve stress or escape reality. Many students struggle with depression and anxiety that was not as prominent when our parents, Gen X, were our age. When will there be enough signals that the pressure the school system pushes onto us is quite literally breaking us?

School hardly teaches us the things we must know to survive in today’s world like how to invest money, do taxes, and balancing a work life with building a family, if we so choose. We have spent our whole lives building up to what’s next.. Elementary school prepares us for middle school, which prepares us for high school, which prepares us for college, and everybody knows that prepares us for the “real world” right? Not really. It teaches us to become worker ants in the enormous ant pile we call our world. Simultaneously, we are taught to be unique, different, and to always rise to the top. Parents, when we are younger, always tell us to be the best. They ingrain the idea that we must be better than everyone else but I believe the school system teaches otherwise. The default occupation is a bland 9:00-5:00 cubicle job, hence the ant pile.   

I think it is hardly fair to work so hard to teach us to all be alike instead of helping us learn through our unique differences. Nowadays, many do not realize that it's okay to be different and something to celebrate. In some school environments, bullying is a result of this fear of being different. An experience that is too often normalized for our age group.

Many could argue that the information we learn has the purpose of teaching young kids how to solve problems in life. Though all of this is true, and in fact hard to hear, we do not need to know how to solve complicated math problems or find the solution to chemical equations to function in this world. There is not a set path in life we need to follow in order to be successful in life. I know that at this point in my life as a teenager, things are hard. I know that in time they will get better, but for now, I Hate School. 

By Peyton Louie