Now look, I understand the need for School. School IS important, and it is a necessity to teach new generations the things that they will need to know in order to function in society. But those things are very defined and somewhat basic items. One of the most common things you will come out of a student’s mouth these days is “Well how will I use this in the real-world?” and Teachers always scoff and say things such as “Every job in the world requires you to do math,” or “Every job requires you to be able to write.” But that’s just it, these are very generalized statements. Sure, most jobs require some basic level of math, but there are very few jobs in a very specific career field that require you to know how to do, and be able to solve calculus.  

And the problem only gets worse, I am currently a sophomore in high school, the number of credits required of me to graduate from high school is 24 according to my state law. This means that in order for me to graduate from one of the most basic levels of schooling, I need to be able to essentially pass every single class I take. Now many of you may say “Well that’s not that bad, just work hard and you can do it.” But it’s not that simple, for one, we are required to have a certain number of credits for each subject, but the problem is what subjects they have and the number of credits required. For one, before I graduate, I must earn at least two fine arts credits. This means that in order to graduate from high school, I need to take two years of some art class. My question is how the hell does “fine arts” have anything to do with me being a good employee in the future? The answer: it doesn’t. I am a conservative, rural-hearted man, I couldn’t give less of a flying crap about the fine arts, and I certainly won’t go into a career that has anything to do with the arts! But I am still required to take two years of fine arts because some old guy up in the state legislature decided that I need to be more “cultured.”

Another huge problem I have is with the teachers’ inherent thirst for what they call “respect”. This is one thing that schools do that makes me madder than anything else. Our teachers demand respect, they demand that you agree with them and acknowledge that they are always right. But this of course isn’t the case, these people confuse the word “respect” with the word “professionalism”. Any good leader can tell you that respect is a two-way street that must be earned, I’ve met more than a few people in my life who have had that “I am an authority figure so you must respect me” type temperament. What they should be preaching is a presence of professionalism, if I am professional, I am polite and courteous but I do not give up my integrity or respect. You can be professional towards a person without respecting them, and it is that simple. For instance, being a conservative growing up in as blue a state as Washington, I can tell you firsthand that I do not respect a lot of the teachers I’ve had, but that does not mean that while I was their student, I was not polite and professional.  
This brings me to my next point: cussing. Yes, yes, I know, it’s a sensitive topic but here’s why I bring it up, restricting someone from speaking their thoughts is a violation of the first amendment. Now there are of course SOME limits to the first amendment, if what you are saying is conspiring to PHYSICALLY hurt another human being without reason then yes, that is a problem. But restricting someone’s ability to say something just because it may offend another person is the very definition of restriction of freedom of speech. I’m not advocating that everyone goes around slinging the f-bomb all willy nilly, but instead of banning foul language, school administrators should be emphasizing on these seven words “There is a time and a place”. There are absolutely times when it should be considered acceptable to use foul-language, such as when you’re with your friends or family and are just hanging out. But using such foul-language in a job interview will most likely get you nowhere. And I lean so heavily on this argument because I see this as a group of people pushing their own morals on the rest of us, which is something I despise as a free-thinking American. Banning the use of any language, speech or expression purely on the implication that it might “offend” someone is downright Un-American! When our founding fathers began to formulate a plan to gain independence from Britain, you better believe there were some people who were offended by it, but that didn’t stop them. The word “offend” is a subjective term, much like pain or humor, it is all relative to the person in question. What is offensive to me might not be offensive to you or vice versa. Using that as grounds to ban something is totally unacceptable, and is easily a double-edged sword. I could say that another person being Christian is offensive to me because I’m Jewish (which I’m not, this is hypothetical), and then proceed to call for a ban on Christianity. If I were to do this, I would be laughed at, but this is essentially the same logic that these people are using against us.