The school system can be compared to “factory farming”. I see schools as places where we the students are the livestock and we are drained of our creativity, individuality and free thinking ability. School is a place where all students can express their feelings toward certain topics as long as they are appropriate. When a person is silenced you are not just oppressing them, you are also wasting a possible opportunity for that student to find out who he/she is or what they want to do with their lives, those are two questions which people attempt to find answers for a long time. Just like how the animals in factories are exploited for their eggs or meat. When I was a freshman I thought I was going to be taught things like how to buy a house, how to balance a checkbook or just a class on how to think as a critical thinker so then you will be able to do that when you are finally out of school. But what you are really taught is how to use the Pythagorean theorem effectively, how to have safe sex, what the plot was in Beowulf, what stimulates the brain and that the silk road was an important trade route. All these things are good to know, but will it help you when you get a job? Probably not. After I graduate I will be able to succeed in the real world, said sophomore Jamie Dela Cruz.  

If high school is about growing up and thinking for yourself, then why don’t we get to choose our classes. There is a time near the end of the school year when underclassmen besides seniors choose their classes for the following year.  But if you only put the classes that you want they automatically add classes you do not to fill in the blank. Where is the independent thinking aspect here? It seems when we were younger we are told to follow our dreams and the sky’s the limit, but when we become teenagers it all changes. It turns into solely following certain guidelines. I do not agree with the school system, said sophomore Isaiah Rivera.  

 Now I’m not saying that the things we learn right now are not completely useless, but if a student knows exactly what they want to do with their life as a career why not just give that student what he/she needs to get to that place. If he/she doesn’t know where they want to go there should be a class where a teacher breaks down what they can take in college, what they can minor and major and how they can apply to a college of their choice. Now some would say, “That’s what college is for”. Well yes you aren’t wrong, but when someone goes to college they don’t think about just going because they want to learn about that subject. People go to college because they want to major in that subject so they can get a job. College was not invented so people could get jobs. Colleges were made so that people could better themselves as intellectual beings. But as the years past that’s what colleges have turned into; a place our parents, teachers, government and society holds as a huge doorway to a job. It is still a good idea to go to college if you want to get a job, but just know that nothing is guaranteed when going into college, do not think just because you get a diploma you can get whatever you want.