Teenagers. When that word comes to your mind you think of immature, rude, annoying, lazy kids that think they know everything enough to survive in this world. I'm not saying that all teenagers are like this, for I am a teenager, also. But when you hear the word 'teenager', isn't that what you think? You may or may not depending on your own opinion, but I bet the majority of you people reading this will agree.
Teenagers don't like to learn. When I say this I don't mean that they don't want to learn how to use their new android phone or that new video game that everybody is talking about, I mean they don't want to learn about what's being taught at school or anything that has to do with hard work. I would know because I used to act like this, not wanting to do my homework, because I thought it was a waste of time and thinking that I knew enough to have a successful future. After being introduced to different subjects such as Latin, programming, and inventing, I realized that with different technologies created and new research being discovered everyday, a minimal high school education is not going to cut it to survive.
During the first 5-6 years of your life, you are taught how to communicate and socialize with others. Then, you go through elementary school where you basically learn how to deal with your basic math, learn a few sports, and get somewhat of an understanding of technology and the media world. Next, you go through a stage from grades 6-8 where your main care in the world is your social life, your family, maybe your grades, and other minor activities (like sports) - but mainly it's your social life. I cannot say for sure what you go through for high school, for I have not experienced it yet, but my guess is through Freshman year, you try to get by, get exceptional grades, and have a name for yourself. No one wants to be the kid who nobody remembers about. During Sophomore and Junior years, you probably mainly do what you previously did: hang out with friends, get decent grades, maybe, and some more hanging out. Then it's the big Senior year. The moment you finally waited for. Now you're the leaders of the campus (unless you were home schooled). You hang out non stop, go to parties every week. Everything's great, then BAM! Time for graduation. Wait a minute... are you prepared for real life, yet? Did you get a good enough education to have a real job or to excel during post-secondary education? Okay so you got some good grades in high school history or lit/comp (which is also sometimes called language arts at different schools). So what? Do you think that Harvard or Princeton cares that you know basic high school history? The answer is, "No." They already have millions of people applying to go to their college with good grades. What makes you different?
Recently, someone told me that a friend of theirs applied for Harvard. The interview went something like this:
Interviewer: Looks like you got good grades.
Anonymous: Yes I do.
Interviewer: So do the millions of people who apply for this university. What makes you different?
Anonymous: I know Ancient Greek.
That anonymous person went to Harvard.
(There was likely a bit more to the conversation, of course.)
The point from that story is instead of spending all of our time hanging out and worrying about our social reputation, we should spend some of that time educating ourselves to prepare for a better future.
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