The Choice of Work or School
Often when you speak to older adults they will tell you the school
days were the best days of your life, this is not because the school
days were the best of their lives, simply that they were conditioned
into believing this. No adult can honestly believe that the best days
of their lives were when they were treated with little or no respect,
or when they were beaten with a slipper for speaking out of turn. If
they truly believed that school days were so good then why did most of
them leave school at 16?
Fortunately today teachers don't beat us with old slippers of canes
but does that really make school a better environment for the student?
Well the most you could say is that it's an improvement. The fact is
that the school environment is an unhealthy one; everyday you're faced
with the same old routine, and even worse the same people.
During your younger teenage years in the lower part of the school we
are all faced with a huge task, not learning about algebra or
Shakespeare, but the ultimately more important lesson of learning who
we are, and who we want to be. So during these turbulent years we are
not placed in a constructive, and helpful environment, we are forced
into a volatile environment where the minority are bullied and the
majority are too afraid to be different, we are surrounded by social
stereotypes, greebos, skaters, townies goths, etc. The only way to
truly be an individual is to shun other people's opinions of you and
be yourself but this can be difficult when they surround you. Bullies
often unfairly target those with learning difficulties, and we all
soon learn that teachers and parents can't really do much to help, we
are told over and over again to "just ignore them" or "try to stay out
of the way" But it's hard to stay out of the way of someone if you
have to be in their class or form.
Basically if you differ from the majority in any way then you are
classed as a freak.
As you get older more and more people leave these social groups and
have the courage to be themselves, as this happens once close
friendship groups start to break up and new ones are formed, new
people get invited to parties that they would never have been invited
or wanted to go to before. So when you reach your last couple of years
in compulsory schooling and mature, finally becoming an individual and
an adult you are still not treated as one teachers still talk to you
condescendingly, don't respect your views and in many cases punish you
for trying to maturely debate a point on which you disagree.
Do you honestly think that your school years will be better than all
those ahead of you? If you do I pity you.
People say, "If you stay in school you will be presented with better
opportunities" this is a fallacy. Yes if you stay in school you may be
offered a job with higher pay, but think, will you enjoy it, and where
will you be in ten, twenty, maybe thirty years later. The reason I
asked will you enjoy it is because you will not excel in a career that
you do not enjoy. Also at the current time there are so many people
going through higher education that certain career paths will be
flooded. For example, if you took a degree in computing five years ago
you may have been able to go straight from university into a high
paying job, but now there are so many people qualified to do this job
that you could easily get a job for more pay without a degree. So all
that time you spent working hard to pay off student loans was wasted.
So what's the alternative?
In my experience of work I was treated as an equal, I was allowed to
have a debate with my superiors, I wasn't punished and I had a great
time. The atmosphere was a constructive and fun one, everyone was
laughing, joking and working hard. I actually looked forward to going
to work instead of coming to school. I managed to grasp concepts that
were new to me much faster than I ever could at school.
So at school you are placed in a suppressive environment get treated
like an insignificant drone, you are expected to do what your told
when your told it without having an opinion whereas at work you are in
a fun, constructive environment, treated as an equal and an
individual, all at the same time as getting paid.