I've always been into what's popular on the social media platform, especially concerning a very popular website: YouTube. I like to see what people are reacting to and talking about.

Recently however, I came across a video that both intrigued and fascinated me. It's called "Don't Stay in School" by Boyinaband; it's a rap song perfectly explaining the faults within the school system. More specifically, the curriculum they teach, or rather, what they don't teach us.

With perfect articulation, Dave (from Boyinaband) explains how we as students never really learn what's important for the real world. How as students in elementary, middle or high school and sometimes even college we don't learn how to get a job, vote or even take care of ourselves properly.

Now, now settle down. The title is controversial in itself. Parents and people alike have complained that the title sends the wrong message to a lot of impressionable youth. However, I beg to disagree if you actually take a few minutes and listen to the lyrics and message of the song in it's entirety. It's not saying kids shouldn't stay in school but rather some of the subjects they teach us should be abandoned and replaced with more practical things that would serve the majority of us some greater good in the real world.

One of the biggest arguments I see against the song is that parents should be the ones to teach their children these practical activities like budgeting, voting, finances, and many others. But Dave brought up a very valid point in his song that needs some addressing, "If you taught the kids to parent, that's the problem solved then."

And that is exactly it! If children at a young age were taught the very basics and had those built up we would have generations of kids who were well-educated in subjects that would be entirely beneficial to their lives. You can still introduce math and world history, but don't force it on them. It stifles a child's natural curiosity towards the outside stimuli. If high school students were taught the facts about uncomfortable issues like sex and how the actual human body works, if they were taught the rights that their physical body has then maybe it would change statistics of sexual assault on college campus's. If you taught teenagers the in's and out's of the working field and helped them prepare for interviews the unemployment rates would change and so would the financial help college students need.

Another important fact in all this: not everyone has parents. Some parents aren't ever really parents to their kids or can't be because they aren't around anymore. It's a sad truth. Not everyone's parents are well educated and well off. My mother didn't always know what was best for me, and even now in college with her better understanding of money I still have no idea how stocks work or how she manages to work and pay the bills.

Kids spend so many hours each day in a classroom learning things that they will never use in their daily lives. We are wasting time and money storing information into our brains that will simply be forgotten after they've taken the test and passed the class. Even in college where you're supposed to be learning about careers I still have to learn algebraic equations that I will never use again once I'm done with the class. I will never need to know the area of a triangle when I need to help a patient cope with grief or depression.

This isn't to put blame on anyone for anything. Everything and every system has its flaws. But if you don't fix those flaws and try to improve them because things 'seem fine' as they are, that's when the real problem starts. That is when people like Dave from Boyinaband need to address the problems, the real problems. Years ago it was decided that education would help make people less ignorant, but it doesn't seem to have the same level of effectiveness anymore. We need to change that. If not for us, then maybe for the next generation.