Do you ever have those moments where random questions pop into your head, like when you’re pouring a bowl of cereal, taking a shower, or doing random tasks? Yeah…well here are some school-related questions that have popped into my head over the years:

1. Why is “high school” two words? 

I have personal beef with this whole two-word thing. I constantly write it as one word because it just makes sense. No one can tell me otherwise. I know, I know…it’s two words. Yet, any time I write or type “high school” I have to go back and put a space in between the words. It’s like the word, or words, ‘ a lot’. I know I’m not the only one who writes “alot” consistently. Why? Why is it like this? I just want answers so that I can sleep at night. 

2. Who exactly decided for how long we go to school?

I personally have thought a lot about this question in particular this year (probably because I’m over school), but why twelve years? Thirteen if you count kindergarten. What was the deciding factor there? Personally, I’d like to think that you could teach me what I need to know in a decade, but apparently those two to three extra years are necessary.

WHY?

I need to know. Personally, I feel like I have relearned so many topics and skills that we were taught years prior instead of new concepts and skills. I just want to understand why twelve years plus kindergarten was the verdict, rather than the much more satisfying number of ten years. 

3. Why do we need four English credits?

While we are on the track of asking why we need to do something for “x” amount of time…why four years of English classes? I am not by any means downplaying the importance of English and writing; I just want to know why four is the correct amount of years.

Personally, I find that Math and English are neck and neck when it comes to importance, but we only need three years of the former. Not to mention the fact that each year of Math incorporates something completely new; we progress from basic algebra equations, to graphing, to exponential equations, to more complex graphing, and then we dip our toes into calculus. It was something different every year that built off of what we had previously learned.

However (as far as English goes), I feel like we stopped learning new things after sophomore year. It seems to be the same pattern of reading a book, writing a paper about the book, and doing some grammar/vocab practice. There are other things thrown into the mix like research or argumentative papers…but not really anything new.

Am I missing something here?

4. Do the separate popular groups mingle? 

I’m sure everyone is aware that there are multiple popular groups on this particular campus. I categorize them as “sporty popular”, “academic popular”, “popular without reason”, and “too cool for school popular”.

Being that I try to fly under the radar, I unfortunately don’t have any insider information…so the questions I have remain unanswered.

It’s not really an answer I need to know, but it is a random curiosity that has crossed my mind. Do these groups mingle? Are they separate? Is there tension between any of these groups?

As far as I can tell, some of them are very different from each other. For example,  in middle school there were always petty fights and tension between groups that were considered “popular”. Then again, I can’t just assume based on middle school, because middle schoolers are just a  different breed of people. I have had some of the most out of pocket things said straight to my face by random middle schoolers. So I’m just going to go out on a limb and assume it’s unfair to base any answers off of my middle school experiences. 

5. Why isn’t some kind of an adulthood class required?

You know how we are consistently told by school authorities that they are “trying to prepare us for the real world”? Yeah. Well, I have not met a single graduated adult who has told me they were prepared for the “real world” after high school.

I just want to know why there isn’t a required adulthood class that teaches things like building credit, doing taxes, getting a loan, balancing a checkbook, writing resumes, investing in stocks, etc… I know that Personal Finance is a CTE elective option (shoutout to the fabulous Mrs. Bray who retired last year but is not at all forgotten!); I just feel like these types of things are non-negotiable knowledge for EVERYONE to learn before graduation.

Seriously. We require P.E. credits. An adulthood class would be just as important (if not more important) than a general health credit. Shouldn’t we want the graduating classes to know what they’re doing before we let them loose in the real world?

Maybe it’s just me who wonders about these (sometimes) inconsequential things, but I think that they are valid points of consideration. Are there actually answers to these questions, or is the final word simply that it’s all “just the way we do it”?

Are there other students or staff that wonder about these things, too? Anybody else who spells high school as one word?

I NEED ANSWERS.