You’re sitting half asleep in a way-too-long math lecture. You look down at the notes you’re taking, or rather, the notes you should’ve been taking. In its place are countless senseless doodles. Perhaps instead of learning whatever abstract lines intersect where you could have been improving your doodles.  

But of course, you are still in that math class. Maybe instead of this routine, you could have some in-school time to work on whatever skill you would like to improve and pursue. I am an advocate for this possibility; I believe it would be able to help people realize that you should pursue what career you want, not end up with a job that you despise. 

For me, one of the things I’ve found out I’m passionate about is 3d modelling. Although there’s a few classes for these, they are only available for juniors and seniors and at the time of writing this, I’m in my sophomore year.  

So, then what might be the issue here? The answer to that is I fear I won’t have the room in my schedule for all of them. Between my required gym, social studies, English, math, and science credits, I might not be able to do those classes for things I like. According to a Yale study, 75 percent of students have a negative feeling toward school. In my opinion, this may be because they are subjugated to classes they dislike. 

I find that if I’m forced into a class, I become greatly uninspired to work for it. A Live Science study showed that uninteresting material leads to 30 percent of students being uninspired. If students had more input into what they are learning, they may want to work harder for their education. 

Not only does it uninspire me in those classes that I’m stuck in, but it may also make me uninspired for things I like to do. Sometimes I would find myself coming home from school, booting up my computer, staring at the default scene in blender, and then just shutting it down. This happens in a cycle everyday worsening and worsening my mood every single time.  

All of this I think leads back to my point. Lacking freedom at school makes me lack freedom at home. Maybe if the curriculum could be altered in some way to let students pursue their goals and aspirations, my and many other people’s cycles could end.