School

What is the Point?

By: Hunter P.

Why do we go to school? The most blatant answer I can give along with everyone else is to learn. Then comes the question, what is there worth learning? You see, most kids believe that they are never, or seldom, going to use what they are learning in school in real life. Now this “real life” means once they get through all school, including college. This point that is brought up about the usefulness of classes is not a stranger to the students here at Stoller Middle School. In fact, it has plagued the learning experience of a great portion, if not a majority of the students here.


The question that these kids ask themselves so frequently is what’s the point? This is really just another way of asking what is the use of the classes that they are taking? This is not to be a thrown away thought too. It is a valid point that needs an answering. For if no one answers it, students will continue to be frustrated without any explanation for why they are put under so much stress. Most all of the students that surveyed said that they believed that they would use hardly any of what they were learning in real life. I feel like more students would try in classes if they honestly believed that they were getting something out of the class.

It is clear that students need what they learn in middle school later in school, but this isn’t the main focus of these questions. The main focus is when will they need these tools once they get a job and are out of school. Well, I’m sorry to say that the answer to this question is sort of anticlimactic to the way my article has been going. The answer is, you don’t. You will not need the majority of the things that you learn in school. You will not need to know how to solve for the area of an eclipse, or how to simplify a binomial, unless you become a math teacher of coarse. This means that you will not need what you are learning unless you fit in the one-half of a percent of jobs that need these skills.

However, this absolutely does not mean that what you are learning is useless and that it will never help you in life. My theory is that at this point, school isn’t so much to educate the necessary needs, but to separate people. As soon as you get out of high school, a huge moment of your life takes place. Where will you go to college? This decision will affect your job, yes your job. The main focus of these students who think school is a waste of time. College and high school directly affect what kind of job that you can get. School separates the smart kids that are able to learn and try from the arrogant ones who still believe that it is all a waste of time.

A job doesn’t care if you know how to properly structure an essay, but they care if you were able to learn it. It doesn’t matter so much what you can do, but it does matter if you were able and willing to learn it. So in a way, what we are learning in middle school right now is important. Also, we will need it, indirectly, to get jobs.

So I now ask you, do you think that you are wasting your time in school? I can’t change what you think, only persuade you as much as I can. However, if you go on thinking that school is a waste of time, through high school and later, let’s see where you are in the next ten, twenty years. I have given you all of the information that I can. Now the next step is up to you. Which road will you decide to take?