5 Reasons Why School Is Good For You

Hang in there, kid! There’s a purpose to all that sitting around. (image via wikimedia)

It’s back to school time, and kids throughout the country are complaining about going back.  Nobody likes going back to school, not even the teachers, and it’s easy to understand why.

It’s also easy to list what’s wrong with school.  Kids just sit in their desks all day while the teachers talk and talk.  A bunch of the kids smell really bad.  Teachers give too much homework.  Teachers yell at the kids for no reason.  The food in the cafeteria is nasty.

Even parents and taxpayers have complaints.  Public education is “one size fits all.”   Schools teach to the tests.  The students don’t think the rules apply to them.  The parents don’t think the rules apply to their kids.  The students don’t think their teachers care.  The teachers don’t think their students care.  Not enough money is spent on education.  Even if you think the education system gets enough taxpayer money, too much of that money in education gets wasted on unnecessary stuff.

Everybody has complaints about school.  Some of these complaints might even be valid.

But we don’t have to be so negative about school.  School is actually good for you, even if it sucks and nobody wants to be there. Here are five reasons why school is good for you.

1.  School teaches you to get up early.

When you’re older, you’ll probably have to get up early to go to a job you don’t like.  Very few people get their dream jobs without suffering first.  School is like your first job that sucks, only you don’t get paid.  If you can succeed at school, then you can succeed at work.  If you can’t succeed at school, maybe the money of a job will motivate you.  But succeeding at school will still help.

2.  School teaches you to get bossed around.

Nobody likes getting bossed around, especially kids.  But school helps you learn how to deal with it.  Yeah, your teachers can be strict or obnoxious.  Some might even get too close and speak with coffee breath right in your face.  Unfortunately, your future bosses probably won’t be much better.  Schools prepare you to accept instructions from somebody you don’t really want to listen to.

3.  School teaches you to keep track of time.

Even if you’re constantly late to class, you can still keep track of time until the class ends by staring at the clock (if it works) or your phone (if the school allows you to keep one with you).  Then you can test your sense of time by ignoring the clock and then estimating the time as you go.  After years of estimating time, I can now accurately calculate the time, even when I haven’t checked it in hours.  My ability to tell the time without assistance stuns my family and friends.  It’s like my mutant ability.

I credit school for that.

4.  School makes you appreciate freedom.

Freedom is awesome, but sometimes people don’t appreciate it.  Do you know what makes people appreciate freedom?  Eight hours of school.  The first week of vacation is the sweetest time in the lives of many children, but as the summer continues, children and teenagers appreciate it less and less… until the new school year approaches.

When you’re an adult, you usually don’t get summer vacation (unless you’re a teacher).  Adults might envy kids and their summer freedom, but then adults remember how horrible school was, and then they appreciate their everyday lives even more.

5.  You might learn a skill that will help you get hired.

Yeah, some people might see this as a long shot, but it happens sometimes.  You might find out that you’re good at math and that you actually like it.  You might discover talents that others don’t have, like a knack for public speaking, or a love of research and analysis, or an ability to mix chemicals without blowing anything up.

Most schools have extracurricular activities that aren’t available anywhere else and give you a chance to have fun and do stuff you like.  It’s true that you have to sit through seven hours of school to get to those activities, but that’s okay; it teaches you that everything has a price.

Some critics might say that I’m setting up expectations that are too high, but I don’t know.  Sometimes if you have a bad attitude, you can make school seem worse than it is.  I’m just trying to help you (or somebody else) see the good in school.

Whether you like it or not, if you’re a kid, you probably have to go to school.  Everybody has had to go through it, and it might seem pointless, but if you have the right attitude, school can be very good for you.