To most anyone reading this article, I’m sure you could agree that you’ve been stressed or exhausted over the education system at some point in your life. To add insult to injury, it’s typically over subjects you have no care or interest in, for the sake of keeping you busy or making money. And on top of this, you’ve probably been forced to deal with people that don’t agree with your beliefs to such an extent that they’d wish upon your downfall on a daily basis. It’s a hostile environment with little to no reward to the average person, and the only focus is on your point average, not your ability to grasp the content. The reason it exists this way is profit. Schools make money by students being in attendance, which is common knowledge. Days are padded out with lessons that don’t matter or don’t bother teaching what they’re meant to for the sake of keeping students long enough to gain funding.

Despite all of this, there’s little resistance to the routine. Everyone I’ve talked to has shared stories of how bad the American education system is, usually to saddening extents, such as being punished for attending funerals or never given a moment’s rest, which should be a human right, even if only morally. However, no change is ever made, and people accept the idea that this is normal. It shouldn’t be.

First off, subjects should be focused, beyond a certain point. One of the main issues with the system we have is the way students are forced to study a largely varying set of subjects, most of which they will hold no interest in. This lack of interest makes coming to school everyday a chore and a struggle to find the easiest ways possible to get around the day instead of a time to learn. Of course, there should be some basic subjects taught early, such as the basics for the main subjects such as English, Math, History, and Science. To mitigate the lack of interest in these subjects, teaching itself should be changed.

Teaching is lacking, drastically. A good, passionate, understanding teacher is hard to come by. Who would blame them when the pay is barely livable when compared to coming to the school everyday and deal with issues out of their pay-grade, especially when that work will taint their free time for no extra pay? This leads to teachers who all too often won’t teach a single day in their semesters, and instead just post whatever assignments look halfway relevant to the subject and offer no help, because they probably didn’t grasp the material themselves going through the learning processes. A good teacher can make or break a subject, which is why the quality of teachers need to increase, both in their respect from the higher ups and their quality of knowledge and teaching.

On top of this disinterest and work-dodging, and the teachers that can make a day far worse than it needed to be, other students make it unbearable. Students are far too often the fault behind the horror stories. From little things that can build up and ruin a day, such as unplugging someone’s cords or messing with their stuff, to actually advocating for human rights to be taken away from certain other groups of students, these interactions make it hard to want to wake up every morning and come to school. Classes advocate for the arguing of minority groups or will alienate certain groups with activities such as group prayers or “men wear this” and “women wear that” events. This isn’t a once-in-a-while problem, either: I’ve witnessed this sort of mess almost every day for the four years I’ve been here, as many other have said for themselves.

This system is broken and detrimental, ruining the youth’s interest in any form of learning through the value of points over health and the constant reminder that other people will want you gone as fast as possible. It’s a harsh environment that remains in place on the grounds of it being “the normal.” Why did we allow this to become the normal?