By Lauren Miller
Multimedia Editor
Eighth grader Devoin Allen lives in the not-so-nice part of Chicago, the part your mom tells you to stay far away from. Last year, his school closed. Allen’s school was just one of 43 public schools in the city of Chicago that closed last June.
Unfortunately, Allen’s story, as reported by the Huffington Post, is not unique, he was just one of thousands of students who had to be relocated because, his previous school was underperforming and unstable. Students, just like Allen, were thrown into the tightly packed classrooms in unfamiliar territory, while their old school , old life sits and rotts. They have been separated from their friends who now attend different school than them, forcing thousands of students to start over.
These students are less than forty minutes away from us, but it seems like a whole other world. Even though we’re only 30 miles away, we’ll never know such hardships. Heaven forbid the worst thing we would experience is the tragic loss of our beloved heat-lamp cookies next year.
Because, unlike Allen, next year, we will all know what school we will be attending, the classes we will be taking, and even what will be served in the cafeteria for lunch. We know, for sure, that Prospect will not close down. We have not only security in this knowledge, but also security in knowing that the school we go to is not underperforming or unstable.
Prospect is the opposite of that. It is top-notch school, but we barely tolerate it. We despise school. We hate Prospect.
We complain, and we complain, and when in doubt, we complain some more. Amidst all of our protests over school, we fail to realize how lucky we are to have a stable education available to us when so many others do not.
I can understand complaining every once in awhile. Heck, even I do it. The bitterly cold and early mornings of school definitely suck. The problem becomes that always complaining can transform a person to become negative and close minded. Why be negative when there is so much positive around us?
We are provided an education to all no matter gender or race. Also, Prospect was recently named ninth best school in the state. But, yeah, besides that, school blows.
Of course, it has its flaws. It sucks that the school system is dependent on memorization, such as tests based on formulas and vocabulary. It often stifles students’ creative growth because the school system is too reliant on test scores and the curriculum often restricts the ability to express creativity, but it does not completely stop the creative process.
Through Prospect, there is a multitude of different clubs, activities and sports in which we have the ability to express ourselves. From anime enthusiasts to quiz bowl brains to dancers, Prospect has crushed our creativity inside of school, but they have provided us with access to a variety of way to express it after school, however we decided to do so.
Yet, we sometimes take all of this for granted, and it has become something students hate and
Warning to all students, if you are someone always complaining about school, stop. The only thing worse than having to be up and learning on a freezing morning is hearing someone complain about it. Everyone had to deal with the conditions ,and they’re not whining about it, so you shouldn’t be either.
Stop complaining and take the time to notice all the benefits we have access to by having the opportunity to attend a top public school.
As found in a 2009 study by globalreportcard.org Prospect is in the 72 percentile for math and the 79 for reading compared to the rest of the world, THE WORLD. We are not just provided with good teachers and rigorous content to push your academic limits, but a good overall education too
The availability of top-notch technology in the school to us is another reason to hold back your next snide comment regarding school. Yes, I am referring to the dreaded iPads. The world today is becoming increasingly more dependent on technology and people who know how to use it. Us, having an abundance of it at our hands and knowing how to use it, will immensely help as we go into the working world. Hirers often look for those who can use technology and those people will be us, with all of the opportunities we have had with technology now.
We have an abundance of electives available to us. These give us an introduction into various careers, and can help us narrow what we want to do in the future.
From after school activities to seemingly endless multitude of apple products to even the lukewarm cafeteria cookies, Prospect is a pretty great school. So that next snide comment you’re going to make about your math teacher’s impossible pop quiz, or the massive amounts of homework you receive every night, try to remember all the positive around you. We’ve all been there, including me, running the twelve minute first hour on a monday, not fun. I got through it, with minimal (or major) complaining, and so can you.
