A topic of interest among students is the great debate of, “Is school really all that important?”
Common arguments are that most of the things we learn are unimportant or that it doesn’t help us out in the long run, but that’s where I disagree.
School plays an important role in helping to prepare us to be a functioning member of society. Sure, you’re not going to decipher a Shakespeare play in the middle of the grocery store, but it does increase your literary skills when you learn these things.
English teaches you proper grammar and spelling, which is necessary for writing a resume or cover letter for a job application in a professional matter. You also learn how to voice your opinions and ideas in a practical and appropriate way without stepping on anybody else’s thoughts and ideas.
Another big discussion of importance is all of the different math subjects. You may not notice it, but math is used in your daily life.
Even if it’s not you using it directly, it’s all around you.
For example, calculus is especially important since it’s needed to build the roads you drive on to get to every place you need to get to.
You’ll be thankful next time you make a turn and don’t go flying off the road.
Basic math skills are also used in the average person’s day to day life, like preparing food, managing the costs of things and calculating the time.
Math also makes us better problem solvers.
It gives us better reasoning to help us to think more logically in a situation.
The step-by-step process of solving a math problem in the classroom can help students take more productive steps to solve problems outside of the classroom.
Even science can be found on the daily! Reading nutrition labels and knowing your daily calorie intake are taught in any health class. Most people nowadays take some form of medication, and during this time of year there’s also a lot of cold medicine being consumed.
Calculating the amount to take could even tie into the daily math intake.
I do agree that the school system has its flaws. Since the education system was designed at the beginning of the industrial revolution, all the workers were taught to think exactly the same and follow directions at someone’s beck and call with no complaint.
It was like one mind split into hundreds of different people. Some aspects of this have been transferred into today’s education system – from having to memorize over half a textbook in class and then taking it home to review it just to make sure nothing slips your mind to respecting your authorities with no objections whatsoever.
There’s this pressure on students to achieve high expectations to do well. It’s the stress that comes with education that causes more hate to fall on school and causes people to look for any excuse to continue to have no interest in it.
I’m not saying school is my favourite thing in the world, because it’s far from it. But we do need to get an education and develop the proper skills to function in society. If you really don’t want to participate in society and just seclude yourself for the rest of your life, be my guest.
But does it really sound like it’s in your best interest? All in all, school is extremely important no matter how stressful it gets or how useless it seems at times.
Ellen Robbins is a Grade 11 student at Charlottetown Rural High School who is completing her co-op placement at The Guardian.
