VICE:    In the “OPINION” category.
All my life has consisted of me being in school 5 days a week for 8 hours a day for the last 12+ years. I’ve experienced what it’s like to be in private school and what its like to be in the public school system as well. Even though both experiences were very different the outcome was the same, my teachers didn’t seem to care about teaching or helping students. In Gattos article “Against School” he speaks about how corrupt the school system and isn’t truly effective. Now i don’t entirely agree with his logic but i also believe a lot of what he says is true, he might be onto something.
    The Idea that schooling can make children gullible and mindless doesn’t surprise me. Almost my entire life of being in school, being constantly told  to sit at a desk all day. Being told what to do and what not to by all your teachers every second of the day, than they go home to do more work that they’ve probably already forgotten all the material they learned that day can be really stressful. I know as a child who has grown up like this, this has put a lot of stress on me and my fellow classmates. I’ve never been an A student and sometimes i wasn’t a B student either, i struggled in some areas more than others but i tried about as hard as a child usually does. Which is trying hard once- I fail- and i give up. Meaning that i put effort into once and once i fail i have no motivation to want to try again. And when i did fail most of my teachers growing up never really noticed or some just didn’t care to help. Now i’m not saying every teacher out there is like this, I’ve had many teachers that i looked up too and will forever remember them.
      The idea that going to school five days a week for 8 hours a day for 12 years+ straight doesn’t always guarantee success. What i mean by this is that all our lives we are taught that education is the most important thing which yes essentially it is important, But it always isn’t the case with some people. There are many people in this world that are living proof of that, people like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg succeeded beyond reach and barely had their foot in the door. Again disclaimer i also don’t believe the same rules apply for everyone obviously, if you want to be a doctor you have to go to school for it there’s no exception. But higher education isn’t for everyone, back in the day around segregation going to university was considered a luxury because the only the rich white people could afford it because there was rarely any colleges accessible for people of color. It’s a beautiful thing that it is accessible in America now as it wasn’t back then, but standards for success is to overwhelming. In 2019 seeking higher education is a necessity to get any job, even Mcdonalds requires some college experience. Â
    The whole point is that the pressure of going to college has significantly grown and it has almost been made impossible to succeed in life without going to college. I’m not trying to paint college as being entirely useless because it isn’t. Certain career paths due require college like being a doctor or being a lawyer etc. Those who want these types of jobs need college there’s  no question. But more social media jobs or entertainment jobs such as acting or dancing doesn’t require college experience. Thousands of students have college debt but most of those students don’t even have a job in that career after graduating. The idea that college can guarantee success isn’t wrong, but it isn’t the only option for all students its possible to have great success without the college. And those students shouldn’t be turned away from those opportunities because of the “no college experience” burden on there shoulder.       Â
