Purpose of School

What, exactly, is the purpose of school? There isn't one, when you think about it. Not past middle school. Although, when you think about it, high school would be useful if students would take it seriously. However, in the United States, they don't. All of the information - all four years that these kids are kept in the high school, all of the knowledge that is given to them - is completely in one ear and out of the other.

High school claims that it's purpose is to learn and prepare students for the "adult" world. However, when you continually baby High School Seniors along with the freshmen, it doesn't help anybody. Your diet is limited in school. You can not have soda in schools anymore. Food above a certain amount of sugar isn't allowed during school hours. Yes, the school does have a job to be doing in "taking care of the students". However, there is a point where students should be making their own choices. Especially when high school claims to be preparing teenagers to be "adults".

People will argue that "adults" are becoming more and more corrupt. You wonder exactly why? It comes from the fact that students aren't being allowed to develop their morals like they used to be able to do in times past. Schools are not teaching manners, not teaching respect in the younger grades, complain about children's "lack of character", then try to make up for it in the years that aren't as-useful to development in the high school by implementing multiple "character-building" programs.

Yes, people's home lives are deteriorating. Parents are less likely to know how to parent anymore. When they do attempt to "parent", it never works out, because they just don't know how to raise children. No, not everyone is perfect, but, however, parents are trying less-and-less to learn how to parent. They're expecting the school to do their job for them. The school is expecting parents to do their job.

There. We've reached the paradox. In our society, that's how our culture works. Everyone blames everyone else. Everyone expects everyone else to do their own jobs. And it's pathetic. And now it has reached our educational system.

Some of the classes that students are being forced into aren't worth the time. Health, as good of a class it is, is just a class of common sense. Unfortunately, when we have to "disguise" a common sense class and force children to take it, doesn't that mean our society is getting worse and worse? It's useful, yes, but if a child was brought up in any place where they'd paid attention, they'd already know all of the lessons taught in Health.

Another big problem of our society lies in the fact that lessons have to be taught over-and-over again. You learn math in kindergarten. Then you learn the exact same math the next year, and the next, and the next, and the next. Then, finally, by sixth grade, you're expected to know how to do subtraction, addition, division, and multiplication. Why should all of this have been taught in first grade, and STAYED in first grade? Not wasted a month of every other year to re-learn it all again. This is where children's lack of discipline is coming into play.

I'm not saying we should become like Japan and commit suicide if we don't feel like we've earned good enough grades, but we're also not challenging ourselves in the slightest. You learn the body systems in third grade. Then again. And again. And again. If we only challenged ourselves to keep and absorb the information, wouldn't we only have to learn this information once?

School is supposed to teach maturity. It's not. The only thing that school is teaching is social skills, which is true. You learn human's *true* colors while you're in high school. You learn to recognize betrayal. You learn to recognize lies. You learn to recognize those people who won't be trustworthy.

When it comes to learning common sense and being mature, school doesn't provide that. It doesn't help encourage individual thought. It doesn't encourage maturity. It just encourages social relationships.

Oh well. School exists. And you have to deal with it, not because it's mandatory all of the years through, but, in order to get a good job, you need to get a high school diploma.