Is our school system moving forward with us?

Our society is moving forward but is the school system moving backwards?

Yes we are of course grateful for our education as it is an extremely important aspect of our lives, although all of us may not be grateful for the rules of the dreaded school system.

About 10% of all teens experience depression before they reach adulthood. Ireland has the fourth highest teen suicide rate in the EU/OECD region. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying this is the school systems fault but with such an outrageous percentage of teens (let alone adults) suffering with depression you would think we would be better educated on mental health. Although we get an anti bullying talk every year or so it doesn't touch on mental health and many people are still very unaware of the effects of mental health and are still very uneducated about it.

Nowadays we are all taught the very well known phrase “appearance doesn't matter it's about who we are as people” I’m sure 1000s of people agree with this statement, why? Because it’s true! Although in school, appearance seems to be the most important aspect because we are told we are representing the school. Not only are we representing the school but we are also representing ourselves which is a lot more important to us as I’m sure it is to everyone. Our hair color or piercings do not affect our work in any way nor do they affect the schools reputation.

Then again the focus should be held on the students themselves. The reputation of the school shouldn’t be more important. We are taught to express ourselves but how can we do so if we are told to look a certain way. Nearly anyway in which someone expresses themselves in school is taken away from them as “it is against the school rules and is a health and safety hazard”

It is 2018 and it is time to move on; in fact that should have happened many years ago. Us as students do not get the voice we deserve to have. If our opinion is anyway against the school system it is not taken into account or listened to. I believe in secondary school we should be allowed voice our opinions freely and taught what is not appropriate to say and is appropriate as it will help us in adulthood. I feel as if there is a higher percentage of people that are book smart rather than people that have common knowledge. This affects many people when they go into the real world because life is not all books or working out the answer to x+y-2. Overall school is supposed to be an enjoyable experience, a place to educate us in an enjoyable manner. School is not supposed to be somewhere we are given out to due to our appearance not matching their personal preference.

It is somewhere that is supposed to have us set up for the real world and to be able to cope with how the world works at this day and age. We are not supposed to be depressed or shaking with anxiety because of the way a teacher raised their voice at us. School for us should be a happy, safe environment, not a depressing, stressful, upsetting one.