Grant+C’s+OpEd+Article



Why are high school students forced to write essays? I absolutely abhor this. I used to enjoy writing, back in middle school, before I entered the life draining void most people call high school, but now I despise it. Writing for me used to be creative and I could write about anything I so desired, anything at all. In high school there is always a topic we have to write about and we have to use at least half the documents and barf facts onto lined paper that stare back at you as if they’re taunting you and explain how the author used rhetorical devices to convey his/her point and all of that has to be done in forty five minutes. It is too confining. When I sit down to write an in class essay, or any essay in general, I feel like I’m in a box. Wrapped in unrippable wrapping paper. Tied closed with chains. Sitting in an explosion proof vault. Duct taped closed. At the bottom of the Mariana Trench. And how many times have I heard the phrase “think outside of the box” or “think outside of the quadrilateral parallelogram”? (I’ve only heard that second one once, but that’s beside the point). How can I think outside of the box if I’m stuck inside one with no way out? The most dreadful part is that I am //glad// that we are forced to write these despicable essays. I know that each of these essays is just practice for the AP tests at the end of the school year and that each time I write one I am improving my chances of doing well on the essay portion of the AP tests. I just can’t wait till I retire and have more time than I could ever need. Time to write creatively about whatever I want.