<p>Do you see going to school as a mandatory activity that just needs to be done with? Do you see it as an obstacle to your other plans - an obstacle that takes away time?</p>
<p>Or do you see school as an opportunity to do things that you couldn't otherwise do?</p>
<p>Or a combination of both?</p>
<p>It would be interesting to see how people treated school like. Personally, I always thought of it as an obstacle (though in 8th grade I thought of it as the best means to think and to ask questions)</p>
<p>Personally, the most important lessons I learned in high school were all learned outside of the classroom. Although the knowledge that you gain in the classroom is important, it doesn't have the longevity that lessons learned outside of the classroom have. In 10 years I sure as hell won't remember the details of the French and Indian War (I don't remember them now.. lol), but I will remember my first boyfriend and everything I learned about dating and breaking up.</p>
<p>I look at college as a momentus step in my future that I look forward to. It'll be the last years that I'm not fully in the 'real world' and I plan on enjoying it.</p>
<p>School is merely a environment for social conditioning. Education is the excuse they use to justify it. I have seen many "uneducated" men infinitely more wise than those who were "educated." True education does not come from the spoonfeeding that is found in [most] schools.</p>
<p>It's not the facts you learn, but the method you learned that that is more important. That's why the math teacher ask the students to figure out a proof rather than just give it to them. The facts you learn in school is not important; chances are, you won't take a derivative in your everyday life (unless you do science or engineering), but the process of figuring out calculus can be applied to everyday thinking and decision making. If you're just fed information that you can learn better from Wikipedia (or feel that way), sure education at school's not very useful. Basically, the purpose of schooling is to teach us how to think and how to learn. The actual facts and subjects are just mediums to do so.</p>
<p>It's only after I figured this out this year that I really enjoyed learning at school.</p>
<p>I felt that high school was "the show" and that when it ended, there was just a big black cloud ahead.</p>
<p>Now that I'm done with two years of college, I can honestly say that life ended after high school. I'm struggling to find any reason I'm around anymore other than to take up space. So enjoy high school while you can and never feel that it's an obstacle. It may very well be the best time of your life.</p>
<p>i agree with Twain because although I think at times, schooling is great for both I and those who wouldn't "learn on their own" I also find myself learning (both in "the real world" and by researching topics of interest to me (which I seriously do more than studying for things I'm "suppose" to be learning about)). I really never let schooling get in the way of my education although I see why schooling is important because I know A LOT of people would just hang out than read, explore, etc. like I do about everything.</p>
<p>High school is not the best time of my life, nonononono. you may have liked it, but you aren't me. You have no idea what I have to put up with at school.</p>
<p>School for me, is more of a means per living. I'd rather be a perpetual student than anything else. If only it didn't cost so! I'd rather hide in an ivory tower of academia and be Ashley Wilkes, blindfolding myself from the outside world. Prefer Chaucer and Milton to Dan Brown. Prefer Oliver Cromwell to George Bush (but not to Blair, nyah).</p>
<p>I'm Thoureavian in so many ways. My English teacher compared my passion for learning to him in her recommendation.</p>
<p>Yeah, high school sucks, but education in itself? That's something else entirely.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'd rather be a perpetual student than anything else. If only it didn't cost so! I'd rather hide in an ivory tower of academia and be Ashley Wilkes, blindfolding myself from the outside world.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>haha I agree. I'd be a perpetual student as well. </p>
<p>--
Another thought:</p>
<p>School is a mean to an end, but a means that often is not enjoyed per se. Moreover, is it a means to a superficial end? (the credentials). Or a mean to an end that one actually values? (while the effective end is college entrance - the fact is that the real end is just the diploma - which is a superficial end i itself since college entrance doesn't always need a HS diploma - it ust needs one in this society).</p>
<p>Learning is also a means to an end
So is school.
ut school is often seen as an obstacle to learning.
Learning is a means to an end that produces an end more meaningful than the one school produces (that is, that one learns something, rather than one gets a credential).
School can be an unnecessary obstacle. Learning is not (it is necessary).</p>
<p>So "means to an end" does not imply an undesirable means, contrary to what I may have implied in the topic post. Rather, it is the content of the means in itself, and whether the means takes away time from a more desirable/efficient means.</p>
<p>I procrastinate. Schools exist to set deadlines.</p>
<p>I failed abstract algebra. I could have easily gotten an A in that class. But it was online, and no one was there to tell me my course deadline was coming up and I'd better finish my exams. I'm used to learning on my own (via textbooks etc.), but people need to tell me when to learn it.</p>
<p>School is also very good at motivating people, in that you feel that you'd be disappointing the teacher or harming your (academic) reputation if you don't do good work. Things become more important when personal factors are involved.</p>
<p>I see school as mostly beneficial, though not always enjoyable, means to an end that I will appreciate more in the future. Some of my classes/teachers have been really interesting and informative, and I've enjoyed their classes, but other classes or teachers I haven't liked too much, either because the subject was boring or the teacher just didn't really suit me.</p>
<p>In eighth grade we had this required class called S4 (Study Skills for Student Success), and I thought it was rather boring because we didn't seem to do much, but then afterwards I realized that I learned a lot of stuff about citation (research paper-type citation) that helped me later in the year and in high school.</p>