I’m struggling to deal with the fact that summer is indeed almost over. That doesn’t just mean the end to hours of indulgence, fun in the sun, and mindless relaxation – oh no. It also marks the beginning of the dreaded school year. School, where youth have to put up with the pressures of piles of homework and committing to balancing school lives along with family, friends, extracurricular activities, etc. Here are some of my arguments regarding the pros and cons of going back to school. I’m feeling cynical, so I’ll start with cons.
CONS
- You’ll be going back to school – Does this point really need to be explained? Who wants to drag themselves up in the morning to face an entire six hours of grueling boredom, only to find your solace at home has been broken by seemingly unbroken mountains of homework? Everyday, (besides weekends and off-days, which are far too few in my opinion) students suffer through hours of arduous work and boring lessons, only to be rewarded at the end of the semester with a few numbers on a piece of paper. Mind you, the dreaded report card isn’t exactly something to look forward to either.
- Too much homework, dished out by unreasonable teachers – I don’t know about anyone else, but several of my teachers don’t understand that it’s difficult to complete homework. Sure, those five pages don’t seem like much, but if you’ve got five pages from every teacher… that adds up to quite a lot. Not to mention, most of us have lives outside of school. But nooooo, I can’t get that extension on my science project JUST because my cat died.
- Too much stress – With the constant threats of detention if homework is uncompleted, and too much teacher/parent-urged drive to succeed, school has become a provider of free stress to students everywhere!
And now, moving on to pros!
PROS:
- You can meet up with friends – School can be a good excuse to socialize with your friends. And possibly the shallow girls who care about superficial appearances or bullies who love making others miserable. Great.
- There are fun social events – Yay! Who doesn’t look forward to things like the school dance? As well, I love assemblies! Students are packed into a too-small gym to listen to adults drone on about things that are mostly insignificant, and eventually gain very little insight and a lot of aching back and bum. However they may look, those gym floors are so not comfortable.
- We get an education – Education is very important to the well-being of society, and ensure the success of future generations, blah blah blah, so on and so forth. Wonderful.
In reality, I’m not against school. In fact, I’m actually quite looking forward to it, considering the fact I’ve basically been doing nothing for two months straight. But who doesn’t love a periodic dose of satire and sardonicism?
Happy “Back to School” everyone!
P.S. I don’t have a cat…
