Dear reader,

“Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it’s stupid,” Albert Einstein, one of the most well known people for his intellect, said this in regard to the education system we use. The purpose of school that we’ve always been told is that it is to give knowledge to us as we grow up so that we’re better suited for going out into the world and being individuals. However, is this really the case? Students should be focused on honing their talents instead of stressing over school and their future.

Students spend so much time stressing over school and their future. What college are you going to go to? What job are you going to get? These are questions on most students mind as they go through school. Another question, however, also comes up quite frequently: how does what I’m learning actually matter? The answer to that is that it doesn’t matter, not the information part at least. What really matters is the obedience to do as your told, even if you think it’s difficult or pointless. School isn’t meant to make you smart, it’s meant to make you obedient, because that is what the workforce wants that schools are really meant to prepare you for. Some may say otherwise, that it takes intelligence to get high grades and test scores, but that’s not exactly true. Homework is about how much of your personal time you’re willing to put aside for what you’re requested to do. Tests and quizzes are about how much you can study. Grades are only a measurement of work ethic.

The worst part of it all, however, is that all this obedience is brought forth by stress. Everyone thinks of grades as how smart someone is, but they’re just an indirect threat towards likeliness of getting into some dream college for some dream job. That brings another flaw in the education system. A degree being more valuable than actual talent. This leads to those obedient people being first in line for a job as opposed to an out-of-the-box thinker who could do a job more efficiently. As a result, the workforce is substantially worse off that it could be with people working more towards their talents than simply following the directions they’re given without question.

Some might say I’ve only written all this because I’m probably someone with terrible grades and too much time on my hands, and well, you’re half right. That’s an accurate description of the kind of person I am, but I’m also someone who believes in change that could fix the unnecessary stress that people go through. Too many teens nowadays worry themselves sick about bad grades destroying their dream future or people thinking that they’re stupid just because their grades are bad. I’ve been on both sides, and have decided to try and understand why there is so much stress in the world we live in.