Now that I’m a sophomore and I’m taking AP European History, I’ve come to notice an unfortunate pattern when it comes to choosing classes. It seems that when it comes to these more advanced classes, most students determine whether they’ll take them or not based on what will look good on their college application. Most of my peers in AP European History could care less about King Henry VIII or the Avignon Papacy. If it didn’t make you look impressive for college, the class would have a much more selective number of students.

Don’t think that I’m saying students don’t have to do this, as the society we live in requires us to. All I’m saying is that students shouldn’t have to take classes solely based on how impressive they’ll look. I believe that being well-rounded is very important, and students should definitely take a variety of classes, but the level of worldliness that is required to go to a good college is ridiculous. How are we suppose to grow as people when all we think about is being up to par for college?

These days the stress level for high school students has grown to an absurd extent. The average student spends seven or eight hours at school alone, with most likely a fair amount of homework to do during their “free” time. And then there are the countless after school activities. By the time most kids are done with their extracurricular activities and homework, it’s time to go to bed. When is there time for hobbies? Or develop your character?

Our system seems to require us to learn solely for extrinsic purposes. We shouldn’t be just learning history, we should be understanding history and incorporating it into the way we perceive the world. Science shouldn’t just be about memorizing the elements and classes of animals. Science should help us to understand how the world functions, and that human society isn’t the only thing happening on the planet. Our education system should be about helping the youth, the future. It should be about teaching future generations in a way that helps them create a better world- not about who can get into the best, most expensive school.