I’ve never had any complaints about school. I mean, none that deviate off the beaten track of homework, due dates and pushy teachers. But now that I’ve taken a minute to evaluate my brief and never-ending period in an educational system,

I can finally pinpoint the chunks that I chose to turn my nose up at before. Ignorance has never gotten me anywhere. Nor has being passive while I’m dumped into metalworks, a class which I have no use or desire for. But apparently art class was full. I need geography to get into the college of my dreams. But wait, my schedule is already full. If I want geography, I have to give up literacy — my favorite class. I know that I’m supposed to say that teachers do their best, that they’re always here for us and strive for our achievement. It’s not that I don’t believe that. I believe that teachers will push themselves to their limits for our educational satisfaction.

But what about our limits? What about that extra course that would pay my way into a college? I know there’s a point where classrooms become overcrowded – I just wish it didn’t have to be that way. My point is, what are high school students lacking from the government?

In my personal experience, I’ve been a firsthand witness to the decay of useful but outdated textbooks. The atlases were new, at least when Nunavut was considered a part of the Northwest Territories. Is it really necessary that high school students have to improvise with their learning material? I can’t complain about the science textbooks – they get newer and shinier every year. And as for math textbooks…falling apart, taped back together, and chock full of graffiti. It’s the same with the socials textbooks (though I can only speak for classes I’ve been enrolled in).

The teachers are good sports about it, they make do with what they’ve been given, and I think that’s helpful in the learning process. Overall, I’d appreciate it if just once my schedule could be exactly what I wanted it to be, and my textbooks in one piece.