School Shouldn’t Suck

If the school system was created with students in mind, there would be no complaining. Why, then, does the phrase “school sucks” remain prevalent across youth group chats from New York to Mercer Island today? The creators and managers of this system have an irrational fear of change. Without change, there can be no improvement, but for some reason (out of comfort with the conventional or sheer laziness), the present is considered “good enough.”

However, isn’t the whole idea of school to make kids unsatisfied with imperfection? If the school system wasn’t hypocritical, they’d either:

a) Make all classes pass/fail with an extremely low bar for the former so students don’t feel obliged to get perfect grades.

or b) Continuously strive to do better (spoiler alert — the right choice).

So, “what can the school system do?” Well, I don’t believe it is my responsibility as a student to deconstruct its flaws, but I will anyway — here are three ideas off the top of my mind:

1. Engage students by teaching them what they want to know. There’s a reason that students in electives tend to be more passionate about completing their work than in core classes. For classes that must be required:
2. Prioritize making the learning experience collaborative and fresh but teacher-directed. School should serve as a hub for student interaction and learning, but if all learning is autonomous, it is no longer school as we define it.
3. Challenge all students equally. Trying to serve students that have different capabilities in an area damages the mental health and growth of all of us.

I truly do believe that school can be a place of joy, but with the lackluster system in place, students view schoolwork as a pathway to grades rather than an opportunity for personal growth. While teachers can subvert this independently, a systemic solution is necessary to provide students with a more enriching and equitable learning environment that, to be blunt, doesn’t suck.