Welcome to reality, Arapahoe. October is always the first month where the challenges of the school year start to overshadow that beginning-of-the-year “can-do” attitude. As tests start to pile up, grades become hard to maintain and students strive to keep up with it all, one poster on the wall in the cafeteria seems to make it all worse.
Its message—“Not for school, but for life, we learn”—seems to mock us in all our academic misery, and students are left to grumble over the seeming hypocrisy of it all. How on earth will these mounds of homework help me in the future, they wonder. How will I ever use any of this?
The poster deserves a second look in the midst of this academic struggle, however. Perhaps there is more truth to the statement than students like to acknowledge.
What exactly is the most important lesson a student takes from his or her high school experience? Is it that the capitol of Slovenia is Ljubljana, or is it that a kind word can make someone’s day?
When it comes down to it, high school is not simply about the facts and the skills that students learn in their classes. It’s about the time in between, the time spent making friends and enjoying the ride. The lessons learned in this time are the truly important ones—they will be the ones that make life worth living in the future.
It is true that classes are also important, of course. Much of the knowledge that a student obtains in high school classes is used in future college studies and career pursuits. However, for all of the facts a student learns in high school, equally essential are the non-tested ideas.
For example, the simple social etiquette learned as a student interacts with friends guides workplace relations in the future. Interactions with teachers help demonstrate the respect necessary for job interviews and workplace hierarchy in the future. All of these social lessons eventually guide the success of students’ futures in the professional world.
However, the non-practical application of the time not spent in class or doing homework is just as important.
What official rule says that teenagers aren’t allowed free time anymore? Why is an open Friday night spent hanging out with friends considered a sign of a “non-motivated student?” What has changed in the past 50 years to make it so necessary for teens to be working all the time?
This is a unique time of life. Teens finally start to be free and mobile during high school. Suddenly the world is full of opportunities, and they all beg to be pursued. Yet, when a student has so much homework that he or she is forced to miss out on supporting Arapahoe at a game or relaxing with friends, these opportunities are wasted. They end up being wasted on those who simply have to grow up too fast…
In 30 years, I guarantee that current students will look back on their time at Arapahoe and remember a lot of different things. I can also guarantee, however, that what they remember won’t be obscure facts and figures. It will be the lessons they use in their daily life, the times spent hanging out and having fun, the relationships and even the hardships, that they remember. Only then will that poster cease its mocking. We will truly have learned for life.