School is like...

As I sit in class and listen to my teacher talk about America's corrupt history, my concentration wanes and I become lost in my thoughts. I drown out the monotonous harangue and compare my life as a student to the life as an inmate in prison. The American school system requires every child to be in school from the tender age of six until they reach graduation, twelve years later. And these twelve years consist of six subjects, an hour each, a half an hour lunch, and that half an hour lunch being the only social time.

At school, students are expected to receive good grades, behave well, obey teachers and administrators, and obey the school's policies. Failure to do so results in punishment, such as being yelled at, having to sit in the hall, detentions, suspensions, and sometimes, expulsion. Unfortunately, the only reward for behaving and doing well is not being punished. Fair enough.

School could be an exciting place to go, but instead it is modeled like a platitudinous prison. The only difference is people go to prison because they committed a crime, and children are sent to school just for being born. For instance, when the weather is nice, students will eat lunch outside and the courtyard will be filled. Some students like to take this opportunity to play a game of Frisbee, and about ten boys were tossing the frisbee to each other right outside the courtyard gates, although still on the grass. Minutes later, the boys were told to come back through the gate and not to go through it again. The boys’ shoulders sunk low along with their heads as they returned to the area within the confines as the principal instructed. Wouldn’t want to give too much freedom.

If the comparison of prison to school still seems far fetched, hear me out. When you type into Google, “School is like,” the first thing to pop up says “prison.” Aside from what Google suggests, prison and school are closely related by lack of freedom. Students are told where to be all day long, and if they do not comply, they suffer consequences. Students lack the freedom to learn what they wish and speak what is on their mind. In school, defending yourself is considered talking back, and also results in punishment, for I have seen this happen on numerous occasions. I can only imagine in a prison, the same thing happens when a prisoner “talks back” to the faculty.

In addition to the predetermined schedule, lack of freedom, and the inability to defend oneself without being “rude,” prison and school are also connected by the food served. Both places serve food that has been prepared, frozen, and reheated. Many schools actually serve the same food from the same provider that prisons do. The only difference is prisoners get a bigger and more balanced meal. Fair enough.

Aside from the concept of school being dangerously alike to prison, another overlooked flaw is the curriculum. I just can't wrap my head around the fact a group of people are dictating what the youth should be learning. I see learning as a beautiful experience, and school is giving it a bad name. Making kids learn about subjects they aren't interested in seems like a waste of time. I spend hours of the day in classes learning about things I will never need to know beyond high school, when I could be improving in what I actually like. Brain development is in its prime while children are in school, yet school hardly makes room for creativity. Copying answers out of a book doesn't allow for free thinking and opinion forming, and is ultimately a form of brainwash.

As young adults, all we want is to be free and explore. To see things on our own and to not take anybody’s orders. Teenagers don’t hate school because they have to learn. Teenagers hate school because it bereaves us from the freedom we yearn so much to have. We want education, we just don’t want it to feel like a punishment. Fair enough.