Make the Most of Your Time in School!

I woke up at 8 a.m. to the joy of a cup of coffee, and then I started working on an assignment for school. It's now 4:32 p.m., and with the exception of this blog and an email here or there, I have done nothing but homework. Even though it's a gorgeous day outside my window, I'm trapped inside because I'M A STUDENT and I have HOMEWORK.

For some students, school is a rigid environment full of stupid rules, boring lectures, and grades that won’t mean a thing someday. The busy work detracts from the time students could be spending doing things they enjoy. In some regard, students are like prisoners who are eager to get out and participate in the REAL WORLD, and I say this as someone who is experientially qualified to make such a comparison!

You see, I used to work as an advocate for prisoners’ rights. One day in maximum security prison, I was meeting with a young man to learn more about the medical neglect he was suffering at the hands of prison officials, and he said something to me I will never forget. “Ms. Feinstein, I’m scared.” I responded, “I know you are scared, I would be scared too if I were going to lose my eye because of an incompetent medical team, but I promise you that I’m doing everything I can with our attorneys and a physician to make sure you get the treatment you need.” He responded, “No, not about that ma'am. I’m scared about the future. This is my second time in prison, and now that I know what it’s like OUT THERE, I’m scared. My first time in prison, I was counting down the days until the end of my sentence. But then, when I was released into the real world, I realized that I had no idea how to survive out there. You see, in here, it’s easy, I mean it’s hard as hell, it’s painful, it’s dehumanizing, but it all makes sense. Out there, it’s extremely confusing.”

When we are so eager to get out, we often fail to pay attention to the valuable lessons we are learning within. And despite the senioritis mentality, the world outside the classroom can be a bit more challenging to master than popular perception would lead us to believe. In the real world, lessons have to be sought from the minutia of everyday life, garnered from interactions with and observations of other people, and acquired through enduring the consequences of your own actions and decisions. The rewards are often presented on two-week intervals, and rarely are they a direct result of individual behavior. In addition, freedom, while exciting, can also be scary and overwhelming. If you don’t believe me, just read Lois Lowry’s The Giver, in which we learn that freedom requires us to make choices, and that living in the real world requires us to give up a life that is simple, predictable, and manageable.

In my opinion, school and prison should be the breeding grounds from which we are released as confident and capable adults into the world who can survive, thrive, cooperate, and contribute to universal well-being; but this process won't happen if we don't take an active role in our own growth and development. As students, our goal should be to achieve our full potential as people, to make the most of every educational moment, and to gain the tools we need to survive in the real world. In order to accomplish this, we need to learn how to make good decisions (like advocating SAT tutoring), discover our passions, explore how we learn best, and take any opportunity we have to learn from others’ mistakes. Although at times it's hard to keep these things in perspective, it's important to remember that even when we see no immediate purpose for something we are learning, it is generally beneficial to us in some way. For starters, had I paid better attention in geometry class, I'd probably be more efficient at packing a suitcase or the trunk of a car!