Half of the stuff we learn in school is completely irrelevant to real life. Being taught this useless information is like learning a language with nobody with which to speak it. You can learn all the words, but without any context, the words are, quite literally, pointless.

Honestly, when are we actually going to need to calculate the slope of a line or memorize the year some random battle happened? We sit in these social free classrooms for minutes upon minutes a day, while we are fed stuff we are never even going to remember in the near future. Very rarely we are taught how to do taxes, budget money, or handle real world issues like dealing with mental health and managing stress. 

They say education is supposed to prepare us for the future. But where’s the preparation? Where has the value in that gone? What’s the point if everything we know is useless? I’m going to put it into simple words: It needs a change. Because at this point, school is living in the past, despite the fact that the world is changing every few minutes. 

Instead of focusing on the material we are shortly going to forget after teachers stress us out about state testing or even exams, how about we start learning things that help us in adulthood? I mean, that is the end goal of school, right? How about we have more classes that would benefit us, instead of including all these different types of math classes or science classes that are going to serve us no purpose. How about we learn how to keep ourselves healthy and productive instead of needing to know the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, or that y=mx+b.

The society we are raised in today is much different than it was even five years ago. Schools around us need to be caught up with the times. Can we even consider traditional schooling as a viable education system for every student anymore? 

We need lessons that prepare us for jobs that don’t even exist yet. We need to learn how to use technology responsibly and how to navigate our lives outside of the facility. If school taught us the lessons we need, students might finally feel like their education matters.

B.B. King once said, “The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.” But in today’s world, the education of students is slowly slipping away. The things we are being taught are preventing us from learning what we need to. Learning should inspire us, not crush us under pressure and pointless tests.