What kids don’t understand is that killing yourself over school might not win you happiness later on. We are constantly preparing for college applications, thinking that getting into a good school will somehow make us happy in the future. Everyone’s dream would be to get accepted into Harvard- but do they even know what they want to do once they get there? Probably not. Happiness isn’t something you should put off. These years are supposed to be the best of our lives, but instead all we’re really doing is waiting for the moment that might never arrive. I loved the quote, “Test scores measure where an individual is, they don’t tell you where an individual will end up”. That is to say, don’t cry over it.
Unfortunately though, I am a part of that. The problem is the pressure we feel from our peers; you have to keep up. I may not care as much about grades as some, but I compare my test scores with everyone around me, secretly getting satisfaction from having a better score than the person next to me. I’ve taken classes for the wrong reasons; at first thinking I can handle all of them, but then realizing there’s no possible way I can do them all at once. In fact, I am taking this class, A.P. U.S. History, mostly because it has the words “Advanced Placement” in front of it. I’m not proud of it, but it’s true. Everyone says “colleges will like that you challenged yourself with an A.P. course junior year”, my parents pushed me into it because I didn’t want to take Honors Pre-Calc, and my two best friends are taking A.P. Chem and Honors Pre-Calc and would openly judge me if didn’t take an A.P. class. I realize there’s more to life than school, I feel extreme pity for those who are only passionate about studying- but just being in the environment of Sharon High School makes me feel I have to prove myself.
As other students have said, most teachers don’t seem to understand that we have other things to do besides homework and studying after we are already spending over 30 hours a week in their classrooms. They pile on the work, not seeming to care that we also have five other classes. However, I do not blame the teachers for this epidemic of academic insanity. In fact, on the first day of school almost every one of my teachers made fun of my class for already worrying about grades. A lot of it is us doing it to ourselves. We over schedule ourselves, and push ourselves far harder than what is healthy. I believe it’s because we compare ourselves to each other too much. For example, you find out some one studied five hours for a test you studied two hours for, and now all of a sudden you feel unprepared. Or, you look over and see that someone is unhappy with an A- on their project, and now your B, which you were fine with before, now seems that much worse. So what is actual success? I believe it’s being proud of yourself- and others being proud of you is unrelated.
So I may not care when someone else does better on a test than me (I can’t stand people who say things like, “…I can’t believe I only got a 96… What’d you get?”, “an 84”, “Oh! That’s so good!”. They’re either lying to you, or insulting your intelligence.), but I am equally caught up in all this. We all need to take a deep breath and realize grades don’t necessarily define success, and they definitely don’t define us.
Sorry to hear that the Darwinian struggle for college acceptance is alive and well at SHS. It sounds like you are aware of many problems that you don't like--albeit it seems as though it is caused by yourselves. What's the solution, both for yourself and the school as a whole do you think?
ReplyDeleteGrade: A I appreciated your honest and candid reflection.