Journal #5: “The Irony of Education”

Why is it that in North America we (as a society) seem to take education for granted? In other countries students will take any opportunity they can get to improve themselves. In our society, educators sometimes have to take extreme measures to perform their function.


Ever since we were five years old, we have been going to school. We all remember that first day we ever went to school, four or five years old, screaming and crying telling our moms we didn't want them to leave. But, after all the screaming and the crying we ended up having a pretty good day. We started to enjoy school and were excited when we got to go. As we got bigger and in the older grades, the teachers seemed to be more mean, the homework was harder and school wasn't so fun anymore. I don't know if it is us as teenagers or if the teachers actually did get more mean, but school was no longer as exciting as it used to be when we were in kindergarten. Each year, we go to school from September to June and hope that the years fly by. We would much rather be hanging out with friends than stuck inside of a classroom.
We, as north Americans, have always just been expected to go to school. We feel at times like we were never given the option as to whether we want to go or not. So many people don't see the point of school and think that it is a waste of time. In my opinion, i think that there are many classes that I have taken that i don't understand the importance of. But i do think that school is very important. I enjoy school, I like the extra curricular and I like almost all of the classes I have taken. I like being taught within a classroom setting and I like almost all of my teachers.
I cant believe the number of people that do not care about school and who just drop out. Or even worse the people who sit in class with the potential to do well but just don't care enough to try. We are lucky as North Americans to have such a great education system and it is sad that many people take it for granted.
In many countries, there are children that wish that they could go to school but they don't have the opportunity. But, if someone told them that they had to go to school they would be more than happy to go. There are some kids that would give anything in order to go to school. Then there is us, we go when we feel like and we skip if we feel like it.