Almost every day of the week, every single one of us in this room gets up and comes to school. School is essential for a functioning society. Everybody in the world should be educated and be provided with all the tools to be the best student possible. So why is it that something created with the intentions to develop a successful society, turns into a painful pattern, producing nothing but wasted moments?
To me, the issue is clear: students focus too much on grades, when they should focus more on living their lives and making memories.
Going to school for six hours, then going to after school commitments, then completing homework and studying. This has been my schedule for this year. This schedule makes it very hard for any student to have any time to themselves, especially if the student is focused on maintaining high grades. In a survey I conducted, 88% of students said that they had missed out on opportunities to be with their friends, to do homework. For those who decide to do the fun thing, 90% of them leave early or are stressed during the activity because of school.
Is it not concerning that so many students are missing out on opportunities to make memories to simply do school work?
In that same survey when asked about their commitment to school and its effect on their social life, 88% of respondents said school has a negative effect. Now I am certainly not saying to disregard school and fail your classes, but there is a line. School is supposed to set you up for a good future, but you can’t have a successful future without building off the happiness of your past.
Along with a loss of enjoyable, memorable experiences, school causes comparison, stress, and downright deterioration of young students’ self esteem. With the constant thought and worry about being the best, students often have a continuous craving to be better than their classmates, which can send them down a dark spiraling whole of comparison that you just can’t crawl out of.
Studies show that more than 50% of the students in high school struggle with poor mental health. What is the root of this struggle? Would you be shocked to know that a lot of this stress comes from school?
I have learned that comparison is a horrible thing, as I have two older siblings who are some of the most intelligent people I know. I have spent so much time and effort trying to be as good as them, but then I realized what was being given up for their success. Countless nights when they would stay locked in their rooms doing work instead of out with their friends, missing out on these activities they loved. I took a step back and that’s when I realized, I can be happy with how I do in school, and happy with who I am outside of school.
In the survey I ran, 94% of the responses said that they compare their grades to those of their classmates. How is someone supposed to enjoy the fun things in life if they’re constantly worried about grades? Don’t let a B+ be a fire that spreads across you until it completely burns your happiness.
I’ve gone through my entire school experience with most of you, and I currently still am. I know I’m not the only one that feels pressure from the school system itself to prioritize school. The entire concept of class rank is an issue itself, it quite literally ranks you and compares you to your fellow classmates. It’s like we are just products coming out from the factory that is school, and the valedictorian is the “best seller”. It also constantly seems like teachers don’t want us to have a healthy social life. With the amount of work teachers assign us, it feels like they are setting us up to simply eat, sleep and breathe school.
A student answer from my survey states, “There is a constant pressure to work on only school and anything else is a waste of your time.” Why should a student feel confined in a place that’s meant for growth? In that same survey I learned that over half of the students answered that their teachers compare them to other students and classes. Again, comparison is not a healthy thing, so why are teachers enforcing it on students?
It is important to take school seriously and stay on top of your work to be individually successful, especially if that is something you strive to do. Although school is extremely important, ask yourself, what will you remember?
Will you remember the night you studied for hours on end, or the night you had a movie marathon? Will you remember when you took notes for 5 hours, or when you jumped in freezing cold water in the winter because that’s where the fun was. Will you remember when you stayed after even when you felt you didn’t need it, or when you and your friends ran around East Gloucester, doing whatever you wanted because you could? The simple way of saying it is you can be both successful in school, and have fun in life.
A majority of our lives have been in school, and there are many more years to come, so why let the best years of your lives be eaten away when they don’t need to be. I understand the importance of school and learning, but a number on a screen that people often let define them will be forgotten, memories won’t. Don’t let your lives go by without enjoying them first. There is a balance to everything, so we should all just live a little.
