Ask most teenagers what they hate doing most, and a common answer will be
"go to school". Youth don't seem to appreciate being forced into purported
institutions of learning for 5 days every week for approximately the first
20% of their lives.
  The reasons for this usually focus on one key point: "It's boring."
Clearly, in most cases, youth don't want to go to school because it's a waste
of time in their estimation, and they'd rather be doing something else.
Adults decide that the students are simply too irresponsible to want an
education, and so they make laws requiring that teenagers virtually give up
the first 18 years of their life (excluding the pre-kindergarten years). They
say this is for those students' own good. They reason that school really is
necessary.
  What makes school "necessary"? Think about this question for a moment. Most
people don't seem to seriously ask themselves this, but simply assume that it
must be because everyone else says it is. If pressed for a reason, the
typical response is *almost always* that you cannot get a good job these days
without a degree. Yet how many people stop at high school without going into
university or college? Many people. There are vast quantities of people in
the world who were forced to go through high school but never went beyond it,
and are therefore stuck pumping gas or picking up garbage. What, then, was
the point of their "education"? What is the point of forcing somebody to go
through high school, then leaving them on their own to pay for university? If
high school is forced, shouldn't it be illegal to not go through university
as well? And yet, it isn't. Obviously there is some flaw in the logic at work
here.
  What other reasons are there to go to school? Look beyond the much-parroted
line "to get a real job". Is this the only reason people think school is
important? Or is there something else to the equation?
  One often-given reason is "to learn social skills". In this world,
interacting with other people is unavoidable. And when you interact with
others, you have to know how to act. You must be polite, well-spoken, and you
need manners. Most people agree on this. Yet is school really necessary to
learn this? Ask yourself: If somebody did not go to school, would they have
to become unsociable people who have trouble getting along with others? Is it
humanly impossible to be sociable without going to school? Is the *only* way
to learn social skills by going to school? To suggest this is as absurd as
suggesting that the only way to get wet is with a garden hose. In fact, the
next time you think about school and "social skills", think about the youth
of today. Do they seem well-adjusted, sociable people who can get along with
everybody? Increasingly, the answer is no. In truth, through the 1900s, young
people experienced more and more separation from adults and, in many cases,
one another. As we leave that century, now we see a new generation which
seems to hate everything and everyone. Imagine the effect this kind of
environment has on those kids immersed in this culture of hate. Far from
teaching them how to get along with others, the company of today's youth
teaches kids how to be angry, how to be apathetic, and how to hate, just like
their peers.
  Another potential reason for going to school is to actually learn. In a
twist of irony that's actually rather humorous, in our "institutions of
learning", learning itself is often the last reason given for attendance,
with job potential and socializing given higher precedence. Learning is
indeed important, and everybody needs to use the precious freedom of their
youth to learn what they'll need to know through their adult life. But does
school really prepare youth for life?
  If you are an older man or woman who has not gone to school for many years,
find out exactly what kids are learning in school nowadays. If you have
children of your own, ask them. Ask yourself sincerely if you feel that the
things they are learning will be useful in their life. History can be
interesting, but is it really necessary to know a detailed account of the
past to live through life? Science can be interesting, but how often do you
get to apply the scientific principles you learn there? And then there's
math, the much-cherished subject which everyone says is necessary. "You NEED
math!" people say. "If you don't know math, how can you even balance your
checkbook or go shopping? Math is needed almost every day in life!" This is
true indeed. However, the math these people are talking about is the kind of
math people are taught in second grade. By the time a person is 10, they will
have already been taught all the math they'll ever really need to know. If
you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide, and possibly do a few other
things involving percents and other miscellany, you know everyday math. Yet
towards the end of high school, students are taught much more complicated
subjects than these, including calculus, statistics, and trigonometry. That's
fine if you want to be a mathematician or physicist, but what if the student
does not plan to do something which would require such knowledge? Think about
this question for just a moment: How many times in your life have you had to
calculate a cosine?
  The fact is, a very large amount of what people learn in school these days
is information they will never use in their lives. Furthermore, even if there
ever comes a time when they might need to use it, they may well have
forgotten it by then. Very often, people entering middle-age say they have
forgotten most of the math they learned in high school, simply because they
never needed to use it. Chances are that unless they get a job which uses it,
most of today's kids won't remember what they learn either. This does not
just apply to math. Anything you learn which you don't use much is likely to
be forgotten in 20 years. What, then, is the point of ever learning it in the
first place?
  So what other reasons might there be to go to school? I can only think of
one which I have heard on occasion from parents who are open-minded enough to
actually wonder if school is really necessary: "I have nowhere else to send
my children."
  In today's world, where jobs are precious and money tends to be scarce,
more and more families consist of parents who both work. This leaves nobody
to look after the children. Often these people can't afford a babysitter or
day-care, and so they send their children to school because it's a place to
keep them out of trouble since they can't look after their own children.
Here, at last, is revealed the true nature of school: Parents do not really
send their children to school to learn. The government does not really force
children to school "for their own good". School is implemented as a free
day-care service for children until they are old enough to leave their
parents.
  So far I have listed reasons in favor of schooling. Are there any negative
reasons why people should *not* go to school? Perhaps.
  First of all, in an age when "information overload" exists (it used to be
that one could not possibly have enough information!), the ability to handle
information is much more important than simply knowing masses of raw data.
The ability to learn is an extremely important skill to have these days: To
be able to gague the relevance of information, to be able to decide what you
need to know and what you don't, selectively picking only the information you
need to know. Selective information gathering is not just a convenience in
today's Internet age: It is a survival tactic. There is just too much info
out there for you to know it all. And so you must learn only what you need.
But kids in school do not learn how to teach themselves. All their subjects
are shoved down their throats by an over-zealous government which continually
presses to teach kids even *more* useless information. This teaches them
absolutely nothing except how to blindly absorb data, without concern for
relevance or application. When they finally leave school, it will be too late
for these kids. They will already be in the world, and they will have no idea
how to organize the information they will need to handle every day.
  School also breeds resentment among students. By being forced to do
something they are unwilling to do, youth tend to become angry. They also are
taking the first steps to becoming sheep. In the modern world, where life is
dictated by a logical system overseen by the government, compliance by people
is crucial. It is of the utmost importance that children learn from an early
age to simply follow the system instead of making waves, so they will serve
as drones. School is an important first step, since people learn there to
follow orders and submit to authority without making decisions for
themselves.
  In conclusion, it seems that the only reason for going to school which has
any validity is the part about getting a job. And that can't be denied: The
statistics clearly show a discrepancy in the average salaries of high school
dropouts, as opposed to people with Ph.D.s or Master's. If you believe that
getting a high-paying job is the most important thing you can do in life, and
that going through not only the 12 years of school but also an additional 4
or 8 years of university is actually worth it, let me close with a
hypothetical futuristic scene. (Pardon me if this sounds a little
science-fiction, but it is for speculation:)

           Joe's eyes scan the crowd, as he stands in the middle of a crowded
         shopping mall, watching the people milling about. He is preparing
         for his final test in his school's Murder course. So far his grades
         have been good, and if he gets a high mark, he might be considered
         for a free scholarship, so he wants to do well.
           Murder as a high school course had been implemented years ago, on
         the basis that it was an important skill. Every day, many people
         suddenly find themselves wishing to kill someone, so they reasoned
         that it should be taught to every person before they graduate from
         high school as part of a comprehensive education program.
           Feeling ready, Joe pulls out a semiautomatic from his jacket and
         opens fire, his expert aim quickly taking down people before they
         have a chance to run. Dozens fall to the ground, of all ages and
         backgrounds. Eventually, when no one alive is left in this section
         of the mall, he goes to where the rest of his class is waiting. His
         teacher counts the dead bodies and comes up with a body count of 58.
           That night, while having dinner with his family, Joe's father
         smiles, claps his son on the back, and says "I'm proud of you, son.
         You killed 58 people, putting you at the top of your class. Someday
         when you're accepted by a prestigious university, it'll all have
         been worth it."

  Absurd? It'll never happen, you say? Perhaps. But my question now is: Are
there some things more important in a person's early life than getting
accepted into university just so you can have more money later? Or are there
more important things in this world than money?