Are you a teenager, and do you hate going to school? Do you always complain the night before about how much you don’t want to go? Are you always counting down the seconds until the last bell rings? But the real question is, why? Why do we hate school? We get a free education. People in other countries fight to have an education, and we get it so easily, and we complain about it. Well, this is what I think.

We hate going to a place where we feel judged. Being a teenager is already hard, but going somewhere everyday where people are judging every little detail about you, sucks. They judge what you look like, who you hang out with, what you are wearing, how you act, and stupid things that shouldn’t even matter. And whether or not you care about what others think is up to you, but I can tell you that most teenagers do care. It is a stressful thing. You want to be the best you. You want everyone around you to love you. Some people do care less about what others think, but in High School, everyone cares at least a little. And walking into the school, constantly thinking about who is judging you, sucks.

Not only do we feel judged, but our education system has become a process where it is no longer about learning, but about passing. Basically, this is how it goes, at least for me. I listen to the teacher, hopefully paying attention, but I’m not gonna lie, sometimes I am off thinking about who knows what. Then we probably have an assignment and homework. Sometimes I do it on my own, sometimes I have to ask people what we are doing because I wasn't paying attention, other times I copy off of people. Then we most likely have a test. I study and most times get a good grade. Once the test has passed, everything I learned slips out of my head. I no longer care about it because I already took the test… So what’s the point anyways? And I know that I am not the only one thinking like this. Most high school students, do and think the same way. So, instead of going to a place to learn, we go to a place to get good grades, to pass.

I am not saying that I am not grateful to have an education, because I absolutely am, one-hundred percent grateful to have one. But parents and people wonder why we don't like to go. They wonder why we beg to let us stay home for a day.  And it may not be the actual idea of going to school and learning that we dis-like, but the environment at the school. Maybe if we care less about others judging, maybe if we all just judge less, and maybe if we went to school to learn, instead of to pass, we would enjoy it more.