Student Opinion

What is school? Is it a place to learn? Is it a place for education? To me, it's a six hour prison I attend daily from Monday to Friday, 8 to 3. Every morning I wake up at 7, cranky and dreading the next six hours. It's the same routine every day: Get up, brush my teeth, eat breakfast, and then a twenty minute walk to school. Classes, classes, and even more classes in my normal, teenage life. If adults wanted teenagers to learn, they shouldn't force them to spend nearly half their life sitting at a desk in a crowded classroom and listening to their teachers drone on and on about the importance of Columbus and the necessity of knowing the periodic elements. I guarantee that by the time class ends, we would've already forgotten about the lecture and thinking about lunch or praying for the end of school. It's true that without a strong education we can't have a good career, but is 182 days of school necessary?
Every day, I sit in class staring at the clock, tuning out the teacher and counting the how long til the day was over. Most of the time I don't have have any idea of what's going on in class and wind up doing nothing but daydream and space out. It's hardwired into my brain: Get to class, stare at the clock, listen to the teacher for a minute, stare back at the clock, and then leave. Some would say school-life is boring and pointless; well, I'm one of those people. I always hated classes and the idea of sitting in a chair for an hour before leaving for a seven minute break, only to go to yet another chair and another hour. Being forced to go to school every weekday can viewed as labour to most adolescents and children, but most keep it to themselves in fear of their parent's authority. There are some aspects of school which I enjoy, like hanging around and wasting time with friends and conversing with people you know. Despite the school's dull nature, I tend to forget about all the things I hate about school whenever I hang out with my friends and learn something actually worth learning. Every year that passes, I look back at all the bad and fun things I experienced at school with fond memories.