Miss Smith's Life Lessons by Jessica

Miss Smith's Life Lessons by Jessica - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

There is an old saying that “you learn something new everyday” which could not be more true, especially for a high school student. As a senior in high school I am very acclimated to sitting in a classroom for up to six hours a day and being lectured by my various teachers on subjects like English and history or doing exercises in math and labs in science. While the lessons we are taught in the classroom are very important sometimes it is the lessons that we are taught outside of the classroom or classroom lectures that mean the most.
Being a teenager is not an easy job, our bodies are changing, we are experiencing emotions that are new to us and all the naps that we skipped out on as kids are coming back to bite us in the butt. While we are perpetually trying to catch up on sleep, our parents, teachers, guidance counselors, and colleges of interest are telling us we need to have a plan. We need to know what we want to do after school, if we even want to go to college, and if so, what we want to study. Once we have chosen our field of study we are pushed to focus on subjects that pertain to that career option, and those grades need to be the most stable grades and also the highest. In college once you have finished your general studies you are put into classes that are solely related to your major while other classes are dropped unless they will move you forward in your majors program.
This appears to be a tried and true method, and it makes sense to only take courses pertaining to your major, but what is the cost for dropping the classes you don’t think you need. Unless you are in a program that is directly related to history, you are not required to complete more than perhaps two years of a history course. If you aspire to be a theater major, you do not need more than two years of math to earn your degree, but what does that do to your mathematical abilities? Much like sports, when you don’t practice your abilities decline, and you become worse.
This is not just a problem in colleges though, high schools are constantly putting more emphasis on the importance of classes such as mathematics and sciences and less on the importance of history, English and fine arts. My AP US History teacher was not shy to tell us her opinions on this predicament and she often told us how she believed that every subject was equally important. My classmates were repeatedly doing homework for their Calculus class or AP Chemistry class in the middle of her lesson; it was not to her liking. She would stop her lesson plan and tell us how it frustrated her because the school focused more on the math and science programs and less on the history and English programs when those courses are just as important if not more than math and science. She didn’t deny the importance of math skills that allow you to balance a checkbook and pay your taxes but she was very adamant about how she hasn’t used the skills that she learned in calculus since she was in that class.
While I agree with my history teacher that there is not always enough emphasis on history and English classes I do not agree that math is completely useless. It is important to know the history of not only your country but foreign countries too because it helps you become a more well rounded person. However, it is important to test you abilities in higher level courses because it gives you a better understanding of your knowledgeability and what you can achieve instead of what you think you can achieve. Sometimes when choosing a major students tend to go for easier majors because they don’t believe they can handle a harder major. But if they had pushed themselves more in high school than they would know that they can really do anything if they’re willing to put in the work.
My history teacher taught me that all subjects are important, not only the ones that the state mandates are. If you apply yourself to every subject you take then you will become a more contributing citizen in society because you will have knowledge and experience in a variety of subjects not just the ones that you were told were pertinent in high school. Despite this not being a lecture given to me for a course, I believe that this is one of the most valuable lessons my history teacher could have taught me in the nine months I occupied a seat in her second period AP US History class. Thank you Miss Smith.