Recently, I have been transfixed by the amount of time we waste. I’ve had conversations with a lot of students about how so much of what we learn in school is not only uninteresting to us but is overwhelmingly un-useful. So far, I’ve spent roughly 2,975 hours in high school. I would be hesitant to say that the majority of my high school experience has been productive; in fact, I think that a lot of the time I’ve spent in school and on homework could have been spent in much more productive ways.
We spend 190 hours per year in science and 152 hours in each of our other core classes. While I understand that we take certain classes like chemistry or Western Civilization to obtain a basic understanding of the world around us, I feel that the detail we go into does not facilitate a basic understanding and thus each class becomes unnecessary for certain students. If a student felt that chemistry (for example) was boring and that he would never use anything he was taught outside of class, wouldn’t his time be more useful if redirected towards a passion, an academic interest or a future occupation?
Some people would defend the current system, claiming that it’s necessary for all students to take chemistry to find out if we have an interest in pursuing it further. But does it take 190 hours to discover that we are not interested in further study of a topic?
Some people argue that 152 hours is, in perspective, a minimal percentage of our lives, but I argue that 152 hours is an immense amount of time to lose. How much further would we be able to develop our strengths if we spent some of the time we “waste” on practicing our passions?
To me, 152 hours could mean reading a whole bunch of books that I always wanted to read but for which I never found the time. It could mean perfecting all of my art homework or expanding my portfolio. Or it could mean catching up on all those old newspaper headlines that interested me but I never got to pursue.
But 152 well-spent hours mean something different for everybody, which exactly why the rigidity of the current school system is a flaw; 152 hours in each class for each student is not an effective use of time.
Then why do I continue to apply myself in all of my classes? Why do I bother spending time and effort trying to succeed at work that I find trivial or useless? Plenty of kids blow off their work to demonstrate their scorn for the education system.
As hypocritical as it may initially seem, I challenge them to rethink their rebellion. Dedication to all aspects of education has become mandatory in order to hold the authority to alter the system. Though it may be a flaw, society gives a lot more weight to the words of a scholar than to those of a student who slacks in their classes. People don’t ask about the reasons for poor grades. Wrong as it is, the general assumption is that dropouts who failed to demonstrate their intelligence through an exemplary report card are stupid, undedicated, or lazy. To gain respect and credibility, people must demonstrate that they have succumbed to the system and experienced it in the intended way. Only then can they prove that the system is lacking. Only then will others value their alterations.
Unfortunately, reform is most effective afterwards; as the saying goes, one must beat the system to change the system. For now, we must raise our challenges and our questions and continue to gather information to evidence them until we are “qualified” to incite change. While slaving over irrelevant homework, we can let our minds wander and envision a day when students will escape the void of purpose that is currently inherent in the education system.
Jess Lebow
Class of 2011
