Yael+B’s+2017+OpEd+Article

=**my purpose.**= Since age 3 I have been sent to a place where I am taught to read, write, add, subtract and everything in between. This most likely won't end until I've reached age 22 or maybe later if I decide to embark upon a masters program or doctorit program. But why? Why is the most energetic and dynamic part of your life spent sat in a chair with the same people every day? Not that education is unimportant or learning is unnecessary, but why are we forced to all learn one way? As young people we are demanded by the government to go to school for at least 8 hours a day, complete 10 years walking around a basketball court (PE), and continue Studying when we leave. If I am being completely honest, the stress severley outweighs knowing how to convert degrees to radians. At 16 years old, I get 5 hours of sleep on a good day and never have time to spend a day not thinking about the next DBQ or what homework is due. I don't get to learn about what I care about and have an exorbinant amount of information about bull shit that I don't need to know. It is commonly yelled in the middle of studying for a test, but when am I ever going to need to calculate the cosecant of a triangle if I want to be a photographer, or why would someone who wants to be a math major need to know how to analyze rhetorical devices. I understand the need for elementary school, because I use the things learn there on a daily basis. Now that I am in high school, I forget what I learn the minute I finish a test which I am sure isn't the ideal outcome, but that is the situation for most kids I know. My entire adult life is dictated by how well I do as a teenager. My grades determine what college I get into, the college I get into determines what degree I get, what degree I get determines where I get a job and that dictates how much money I make. Which is possibly the most unfair piece of truth. This point in my life is for exploring and experienceing things for the first time, not sitting in my room for three hours reading about how to identify the thesis of a 19 page essay. Teens are being stressed to the point of giving themselves an ulcer just because its what a bunch of white old dudes in DC thinks is best for us. But you know what's best for me? Sleeping for more that 6 hours a night and waking up later than 5:30 in the morning. I havent been to the beach since December and frankly I just want to enjoy one sunset between the months of august and June without my mind stressing about anything else.