Why is School Even Necessary?

We sometimes find ourselves struggling with this question especially when we find virtually everything we learn from school seemingly unhelpful and impractical. Also, with the advent of ChatGPT, we can easily have AI do the work for us where we may no longer feel challenged by what the school has to offer us. Moreover, we see too many wealthy influencers who share their personal stories of how dropping out of school was what led them to where they are now.

Some of you may have argued with your parents already, wanting to begin work immediately because you find school uninteresting. Some of you may be just showing up to school because it is the norm. Some of you might be going to school with exhilaration and passion for learning. Whatever situation you’re in, what I can tell you is that there is certainly no hard and fast rule about school being necessary for everyone, though I do encourage all my students to go to one. In this post, I’d like to share with you some of my thoughts on this topic and answer, "Why is school even necessary?"

First thing I want to emphasize is to stop thinking of school solely as an investment for making good money in the future because it is deeper than that. Many students go to school and get the grades they need because they want to get into the university they want in hopes to secure a good career. However, once they enter university, they meet or hear of friends who’ve started a business and are making 6 digits while they are still in school with a huge sum of loan. They are then suddenly filled with doubt and regret, thinking perhaps they should’ve done the same as their friends. Now, I believe there is a fundamental flaw in this line of thinking because as said earlier, you are thinking of school solely as an investment for making good money and money is your ultimate goal when it shouldn’t be.

One reason I recommend school is because it teaches you to bear responsibilities as a student. Some of those include studying for tests, submitting good quality essays and assignments on time, preparing and delivering well thought-out presentations, and more. School is a good place to practice these responsibilities without severe consequences. Also, you may adopt effective planning and time management skills in the process of bearing these responsibilities, and these come in real handy when you ultimately get a job or even start a business.

Other reason is to learn social skills in an environment of great diversity, opportunity, and activities. I believe good social skills or interpersonal skills are one of the most important skill sets one should develop and improve upon, and there is no better place to do so than school. The reason, as implied earlier, is because you are exposed to such diverse groups of people of different backgrounds, interests, and aspirations. This exposure can certainly help you skillfully deal with a variety of people in the future and build a deep relationship with those you like and respect. Moreover, speaking of diversity, opportunity, and activities, school is also an ideal place to figure out one’s interests and passions for these exact reasons where students can formulate good career ideas and healthy habits for the future. And the bouncing of ideas back and forth among peers will allow you to develop and consolidate your beliefs and your value system as well. All in all, school gives students the opportunity to learn about people and about oneself.

Last benefit of school I’d like to share is patience. School exposes you to a diverse set of classes or courses from science, math, philosophy to arts and more. We all know that it is virtually impossible to find all of those to be interesting, yet we are still required to complete them to advance to the next year. Although we may not get the best marks in those areas, it still gives us the opportunity to endure through what bores the heck out of us, which is what patience is. It will be quite similar when we work in our jobs or in our business in the future where we don’t get to only do things that interest us or that we enjoy doing. There will be meetings, negotiations, projects, group work and more that require a tremendous amount of patience. Again, school is where we learn at least a bit of that without severe consequences.

As someone who’s been in school for well over 10 years, I still think there is some use in going to school. Also, I want to emphasize that if you find school completely boring and uninteresting, it might not entirely be the school’s fault, but what may be necessary is to scrutinize your mindset and your involvement in school. Are you really exploring what the school has to offer such as school events, clubs, extra-curricular activities, volunteer opportunities? Are you putting in time and effort to find friend groups who share similar beliefs and goals as you? Are you perhaps frustrated because the school is not making you money and you are thinking of school solely as an investment for making money in the future rather than a place where you build important skills and attributes? Believe me, I’ve had times where I complained about my school because they weren’t motivating us to learn and enjoy school, but I realized that it was my lack of proactiveness and involvement in school that was the cause of this. I was expecting school to spoon-feed me rather than creating opportunities myself. For those who want to drop out of school, I’d like to encourage you to have realistic plans before you drop out. For those going to school, I want to encourage you to explore options, create your own opportunities, and think of ways to maximize your experience.