Archived News Item

Education: Required

I know a student who taught himself Morse code in two weeks.

Why? Because he could.

I know a teenager who spent a summer learning French, nothing but that — studying for three months and doing little else.

Why? Because he loved it.

I have a friend who attended night classes in calculus, not to graduate, but to tantalize himself.

Because he wanted to.

Everywhere around you are students who loathe and spit to be chained in a classroom, yet in their freedom choose, often enough, to learn — to actually spend even more time acquiring a skill, learning an art, studying in some field of knowledge.

If we hate it so much, why do we actually pursue it? I could tell you that a page set in red left-aligned block paragraphs would evoke an impression of solidarity and reliability, while exciting the mind and encouraging the eye to mobilize. I did not learn that because my English teacher taught it to me.

Actively seeking out knowledge or personal development seems antithetical to the prevalent “school sucks” attitude of most teens, yet it certainly happens, regularly and often. If this is the case, then why do we so hate to have education forced on us?

Because of exactly that. It is forced.

Be strong-armed into anything and it will lose its savor, for two reasons: First, you lose the flexibility of self-control, and second, you are enacting someone else’s will rather than your own.

When I taught myself CSS2 (one of the technologies used to build this site), I didn’t go into a class every day, at a certain time, with an assignment to complete, and a curriculum to follow, and a teacher who had X, Y and Z in mind. I did it on my own time, at my own pace, in my own way — but what’s important to realize is that I did not necessarily learn slower or worse than I would have in a classroom. Nor did I necessarily learn better, but I certainly learned, happily and voluntarily, and I rememberd it too. This is the concept behind Independent Studies. Give the student enough rope to hang himself and he just might flourish.

The other reason, of course, is that even something you may enjoy under ordinary circumstances can be miserable when it’s demanded of you. If I had decided one day that CSS sucked and I never wanted to see it again, then I could have dropped it and walked away. I didn’t, and maybe I was at no more risk of doing so than I’d have been at in a classroom — but the mindset of “your own free will” can mean the difference between relaxation and hounds-at-your-heels displeasure.

Adults of an older generation moan and sigh with woe, saying, “The opportunities they shirk! Why, when I was their age, I’d have jumped at the chance…” Indeed they would have, because they saw what education could do for them, realized that they wanted it, and chose to make their lives better. The realities haven’t changed; an education will still do wonders. But when it because compulsory — not legally, though of course it is, but culturally — it crossed the line from “Wonderful opportunity” to “Wonderful opportunity, like it or not.”

If we are ever to enjoy school… or not enjoy, but even tolerate it, to stop rebelling against it with all our might (and I refer to the general Teeming Masses, the bulk and majority of teens), then we must change our mindset. Blah, blah, education, college, job, happiness. We know that, heard it a million times, and it’s no longer helpful.

Here’s where I’d normally provide some kind of solution, an answer to this problem. But I have none. Only that if you can succeed in altering your outlook, then you might make your time in enforced opportunity-building much, much happier.

We’ve rolled back the curtain on a new section of the site — the Events page. Here we’ll catalogue upcoming events, any approaching dates that you may need to know about. This will be the repository for all of the little bits and pieces that appear in the bulletin or other places, things you can’t remember but might need to. In fact, this might well become the most useful portion of the site, and should be your most checked — it will be updated daily. Sophomore Nathan Hinchey has graciously offered to keep the page updated. Applause.

— Brandon