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What They Don't Teach You in School
They teach you a lot in school…a lot of very worthless things. Like Trigonometry, and prepositions, and the quadratic formula, and the difference between dominant and recessive genes. But they don’t teach you what’s important. They don’t teach you what to do when you’re sad. They don’t teach you how to deal with your problems. They don’t teach you how to feel beautiful, or happy, or worthy, they don’t tell you how to cope with feelings, or how to help others do so…I don’t know why they teach you so very little that’s actually worth knowing.
I don't mean to sound ungrateful; I really appreciate the opportunity to receive and education, and I am very thankful for the people who are brave enough to teach high schoolers. I just wish they addressed some issues that seem more prevalent and relavent to everyday life. Because they leave us a whole lot of things to figure out for ourselves while filling our brains with lots of things we'd prefer not to know.
There are lots of other things they never talk about in school. They don’t really talk to the girls about not getting pregnant, and they definitely don’t tell you how to handle it if you do. They don’t talk about how to live on a small budget, or how to get over the funky feelings of being wealthy. They push you toward conforming, while telling you to “be an individual.” Well, gee, don’t you think that would be easier if you would teach me what that meant instead of molding me into a clone of my peers? They don’t tell you what to say to someone who’s judging you. They don't teach you about suicidal thoughts or self-doubt or self-hatred. They never tell you where to go when you can’t be at home anymore, or when you feel unsafe. They never teach you who needs your help, or how to give it to them. They never teach you how to love or be loved. And ironically, they provoke a lot of stress and never tell you how to deal with it. They don't tell you how to deal with death, and really, they don't tell you how to deal with life either. Many days, I come home feeling like all I've learned are new strategies for getting through long, boring classes.
So I finally asked my math teacher one afternoon after class - I walked right up to him, fidgeting with my hands. He thought I had come to discuss my grade, so his eyebrows shot through the roof when I asked him why he chose to teach mathematical concepts that were seemingly useless and inapplicable to the real world. I asked sincerely, trying my best not to insult him. He took a moment to respond before agreeing with me. He said he spent three hours every day teaching something that many of his students would probably forget by the time graduation rolled around. He said he understood why I was frustrated with the curriculum and promised he'd try to find a way to relate what we were learning to the real world. I told him I admired that he had chosen to teach us how to solve problems, but I told him I needed help solving a different kind of problem, not the ones written in textbooks.
He never answered my question. I suppose he must find some sort of joy in math (I'm not sure how, though). But I'll tell you that I learned more from that conversation than I have from any math class.
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For those of you who have ever felt frustrated by what you've been taught in school, or maybe what you haven't, this is for you!