For thirteen arduous years of our youth, my peers and I sauntered through the land of Academia. We navigated the corridors at right angles, attempting to prepare ourselves for the next chapter in our lives. But about halfway through these journeys of compulsory education, I couldn’t help but recognize a poignant truth about schools.
While schools are thought to be formidable institutions of learning by masses, they are often more like a maze than well-trodden avenues to adulthood. Alas, the maps we draw for ourselves during these trying times are often incomplete, with the compass faltering in its guiding hand.
Fortunately, there is a silver lining amidst the chaos. At their best, schools offer the opportunity to unearth our passions, forge lasting friendships, and hopefully, find our bearings in this vast, complex world. Schooling inadvertently imparts broader life lessons that leave indelible marks on our future plan. Through the ups and downs of my own schooling, I can relate at least four lessons gleaned from my time within those hallowed walls, plus one final lesson it took me much longer to learn.
It takes a long time to fully grow and mature intellectually.
The first truth I stumbled upon in my academic journey in Absurdia is that intellectual growth and maturity aren’t overnight phenomena. Rather, it’s a slow, deliberate process, as our young, pliable minds are bombarded with nuggets of knowledge, skills, and experiences. The hope is that with each class in every subsequent grade, our learning experiences will grow more vibrant and meaningful than the last.
Unfortunately, that hope is misplaced. What typically happens is that with each passing year, you cover a lot of the same material, but with bigger words and perhaps in a bit more detail. Each academic season you’re expected to provide longer papers, more insightful responses, and regurgitate even more figures, facts, and theorems. After awhile, education becomes a chore. It’s not the journey of self-improvement and search for wisdom that you’re told it should be. It becomes an unpaid job.
Meanwhile, as our bodies, minds, and souls are ever-evolving, we must continually strive for self-improvement, even if school doesn’t give us those opportunities in a straightforward manner. Sometimes it feels like you’re in an endless process of learning to take tests and play complicated games of shoots and ladders. This becomes all the more true when you graduate with your high school diploma and enter the realms of university. But, what you inevitably learn is that with practice and perseverance you can get better at anything.
You don’t need school to expand your knowledge and fulfill your dreams. School just gives us all a baseline against which to measure ourselves, and that line falls a bit lower each year. Fortunately for us, the odyssey of intellectual growth and maturity doesn’t, and shouldn’t, end until we gasp for our very last breath.
There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all education system.
By the time I reached high school, I realized that the notion of a one-size-fits-all education is a mere illusion. Each of us are unique, with distinct talents, aspirations, and aptitudes. So, it’s folly to assume that a single system can cultivate the boundless potential of every young mind. I learned even as a pre-teen that the key to unlocking the treasure trove of human ingenuity lies in embracing diversity and nurturing individuality.
Unfortunately, to shift the educational paradigm in that way would mean reimagining the very foundations upon which our educational edifice stands. Sadly, whether or not we like it, most public education systems are focused on a one-size-fits-all approach to standardized testing, grading, and curriculum. Even in my own high school years, from 2001 to 2005, there was an unwavering focus on uniformity. What they often referred to as striving for “academic excellence” was nothing but rhetoric when the true goal was to force the best possible test scores out of the student population.
Along the way, I see such methods stifling human expression in our youths. The age-old adage ‘variety is the spice of life’ should ring true in our classrooms. Yet, the zest of creativity and the sizzle of emerging innovation are all too often drowned by the monotonous drone of relentless standardization.
During my college years, I began to envision the potential that could unfold if our educational systems were instead to promote the diverse strengths and skills of their pupils. I imagined a world in which education would allow individuality to flourish and students would sprout wings to soar to unprecedented heights. I’ve often dreamed of an educational paradigm in which traditional subjects intertwine with cutting-edge disciplines; so, ancient wisdom could be imbued with modern energy and evolved perspective. Only through such bold new steps can we forge a bold and brilliant future for the generations to come.
But, it’s not enough for me to merely daydream of such wondrous possibilities. This is why I’ve chosen to venture forth into writing about uncharted territories of educational reform. We must choose to ignite the fires of change, fueling the flames with the indomitable spirit of human progress. Our collective goal must be to construct an educational system that celebrates, rather than stifles, the dazzling array of human potential.
In the immortal words of Robert Frost, “we must take the road less traveled by…” Only by following this wisdom have I discovered some of the human ingenuity that lies dormant within those I meet. Our schools should bring us together in order to prepare us to go forth to meet our own destinies. None of us should be filed away into the have-been, will-be, and never-will. The high attrition rate of human potential isn’t just disheartening and unfortunate, it’s a crime against humanity.
School pushes excessive participation in extra-curricular activities.
My junior-high and high-school years taught me the perils of overindulgence in extracurricular activities. The stories I could tell about my peers are cautionary tales about the quest for the well-roundedness necessary to gain acceptance to a storied institution of learning. While these extracurricular pursuits can enrich our lives, many passionate youths fail to recognize the crucial balance necessary for a fulfilling existence.
At first, I found myself ensnared in a dizzying whirlwind of clubs, losing sight of the true essence of learning. I didn’t play sports, but perhaps it’s for the better than I’m so athletically disinclined. After a time, I found I wasn’t really fitting in with any club that I joined, and sometimes was ostracized entirely. Indeed, for many years if you asked me my favorite school subject, my answer would be dismissal. It’s all I looked forward to from about fifth or sixth grade to my high school graduation day.
I couldn’t wait to get home and explore the wonders of the burgeoning internet. These digital realms I visited through my personal computer offered me an escape from the superfluous expectations that reverberate within Academia. I’d traverse pixelated landscapes, vanquishing foes and solving mysteries that felt more tangible and rewarding than any club or committee ever could. Some of those landscapes weren’t too friendly, either. But, I could at least walk away from them just as I did from those in what my peers would refer to as “real life.”
Meanwhile, within literature, I found excitement in the tales of extraordinary characters whose adventures transcended the mundane pursuits of my peers. The whispered secrets of authors both contemporary and long gone echoed in my heart and soul. Perhaps the greatest lesson I’ve learned through my reading pursuits is that life is choosing how to govern your passions wisely. It’s never been simply about accumulating accolades, as if they were trinkets to be displayed upon a dusty shelf. You need to know who you are and what that means for your life path.
It was by my sophomore year of high school that I fully recognized the folly of those who clung to the notion that success was measured in the number of clubs or extracurriculars that one could juggle. By my high school graduation, many of my classmates were haggard and hollow-eyed. Even on the eve of a new beginning, their once-bright dreams were tarnished by the weight of their self-imposed burdens. Many of my peers, if not most, would leave the best parts of themselves behind at their high school graduations.
Eschewing the tangled web of extracurricular excess, I found within myself the courage to break free and carve out a path of my own choosing. I continue to embrace both the beauty and danger of a life lived in harmony with one’s true passions. I resolved that extracurricular burnout would never obscure my own life path. Although sometimes I let others’ interferences come close to derailing me, I’m still here to write about them.
School doesn’t teach you what you need to survive.
The most important thing that school taught me is that the things you need to learn for your own survival aren’t found there. It took well into adulthood for me to discover that the true essence of learning lay not in the pursuit of well-roundedness, but rather in nourishing an unwavering belief in your own unique journey. No one should be allowed to map your life out for you.
Though the road of academic pursuits was often fraught with uncertainty, I now realize that school is not merely a means to an end. For all its faults, it does provide valuable life experiences, many of which ultimately shape who we are and who we’ll become. In that realization lies a profound lesson: learn to embrace life’s uncertainties that come with this boundless, ever-changing world.
Bidding adieu to the storied halls of my childhood, I’m grateful for the lessons I’ve learned and the friends I made. Sadly, many of those friendships ended long ago. Still, the lessons still reside within the vaults of my inner being. I’m blessed to be able to share some of them with you now, dear readers. I hope these lessons I’ve shared with you are valuable to your own self-education.
~ Amelia Desertsong, September 2023
