“From Backpacks to Briefcases” by Kailey Serrao ’25

This year, I was able to select my classes and teachers because I am in the college program now. It still feels weird to consider myself a college student, but this is Bard, so that’s the way students refer to themselves. One of the courses that I am in is “Why School?”, a class that asks why we are in school. The class wasn’t my first choice, but overtime I found the content interesting. Recently, we watched a documentary called “Race to Nowhere”, directed by Vicki Abeles and Jessica Congdon. The documentary was about students being in this endless, draining loop of school: waking up early, going to school, doing sports or extracurricular activities, coming home late, and staying up late trying to do homework, all to wake up early the next morning and repeat this process over again, 5 times a week. Students often say that they work hard now for their “future”, as an excuse for the minimal sleep they get almost every day. Students put in all of this work because it’s supposed to help them go to a “good” college, but what exactly is the point? To go to a college where the admissions officer will never meet you?

Now, I don’t mean to come off as pessimistic. I wholeheartedly believe in students expanding their education beyond high school if that’s what they really desire. In my opinion, attaining knowledge feels amazing, but not when it’s forced. What we really need to do is stop and analyze the structure of the school system that we have been in for our entire lives. We can’t only look at the structure of school, but the structure of society itself. Society has these standards for children; to shape them into perfect workers who can fit right into the working class and be “productive members of society.” The youth becomes integrated and prepared for the division of labor through school which tailors kids for work. How, you may ask, does school have a parallel to capitalist American society? The educational system prepares students for the needs of those who own the means for profit, which decides their social class for them when they are finished with school. In school, there is a certain standard that a child must meet in appearance and in academics. Students must have discipline, appear presentable, maintain high grades, and establish good bonds with their peers. To me, this resembles a similar feel to the workplace. Making school feel like a work-place better prepares students for the job market. The entire concept of being prepared for the “real world” from such a young age feels nonsensical. Is this really what humans were made for? Getting an education that they largely have no say in and working for the rest of their lives?


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