I think everyone can agree that high school is sort of a struggle. It leads us through enormous mood swings and stress as we try to complete 7-8 classes (for some of us, they might be advanced), numerous extra-curriculars, hours of homework, and on top of that attempt to keep a social life and actually sleep every once in a while. It’s very easy to understand why teen angst is a thing.
One of the things I dislike about high school is how academic it is. This may sounds like a ridiculous statement, because the whole point of school is to educate us, right? Well, of course. But education expands so far beyond learning math problems and knowing what the mitochondria is. It’s learning how to live.
The most important things I’ve learned in life came from experiences I’ve had outside of school. I learned a sense of adventure by going on long road trips. I learned how to maintain a healthy relationship by interacting with people with the little time I had outside of school. I learned how to be happy by spending more time with friends and taking a break from the overload of stress my schoolwork gave me.
In high school, it seems as if everything we do is geared toward a united curriculum of science, math, social studies, and english. Little do we get told what this has to do with boosting our inner happiness, figuring out who we are, or learning how to succeed in the real world. We are given this plethora of information in different subjects, which, admittedly, is very useful, but the area in which high school has a disconnect is teaching us how to use this information in order to make our lives better. They merely give us the information and throw us into the world. Of course we may find an interest in one of these subjects and build off that interest to make a passion, but how do we make this passion into a happy life? That’s what students should be learning.
Moreover, students need to be able to specialize in whichever interest that seems to please them the most. This not only will expand one’s personal happiness, but better prepare them for the world by educating them more about what field they will be most likely pursuing, furthermore providing them better opportunities to flourish in whatever way seems to suit them best.
It is a weird thing to think that we need to make high school more fun and enjoyable, after all, it’s supposed to be work. Work isn’t always supposed to be peaches and cream. But think about this– wouldn’t you do better in school if you actually enjoyed it?
