Pretending to Hate School Makes Us More Miserable than We Need to be

Hating school is an overwhelmingly popular idea in our culture. I’ve seen countless tweets about how students would rather do anything but go to school, that a certain class makes them want to self-destruct, and so on. I’ve probably tweeted the same type of thing; it’s funny and relatable to hate school.

I don’t think there’s any harm in commiserating with other students about school; we are forced to get up incredibly early and take classes that don’t interest us in the slightest, after all. And, for some, the forced social interactions of school can be really emotionally draining. It definitely makes sense for kids to not love school as a whole. But I think the danger comes from the popular tendency to hate every aspect of school. The way I hear myself and others talk classifies everything that happens at school as bad. You’re supposed to hate math class, and every book you read in English.

I’ve found myself saying that I hate whatever book we’re currently reading for English class, when in reality, I’ve been reading ahead the past few nights because the plot is so intriguing. I’ve complained about not wanting to go to math, but the more I think about it, I actually really enjoy the mental challenge of calculus. We, as students, are always finding something to complain about when it comes to school, because it’s so uncommon to admit that you actually enjoy learning in general. We make ourselves more miserable than we need to be. Again, there are a lot of very valid reasons to hate school, don’t get me wrong. But learning should not be one of them.

The cool thing I’ve noticed about admitting--to yourself and to others--that you actually loved Brave New World and that you’re kind of looking forward to doing more integrals today, is that it makes school a lot more fun. When you allow yourself to enjoy the things that you genuinely like, even if it’s not popular to like those things, school becomes much more bearable.