Rachel Penick | Emilio Hernandez | Andres Castellanos

Editorial Challenge

Students. The “hope” for the older generations. The “solution” for every unsuccessful voyage.
The “expectation” for a forthcoming world that has been neglected and harmed at the course of
history.

We have been placed under rigorous standards. We have been deprived of our
childhood to fulfill the burdensome tasks that come from our schools. And, despite being
promised that these duties would only range five out of seven days, we are loaded with
additional work to “acquire the experience needed.” We are given work that drains us of our
limited free time. Work that replaces the time that we could have used to truly appreciate and
enjoy our family but instead we master the values of tangent, cosine, sine, cotangent, cosecant,
and secant in the unit circle.

Yet, this experience does not come from only reading. This experience does not come
from solving cos on a graph. This experience does not come from knowing where to put the last
valence electron in a Lanthanide element. This experience does not come from knowing the
rigid schedules of the Great Basins natives in the XIX Century. This experience does not come
from the continuous repetition and memorization from schools.

This knowledge comes from real-life situations. It comes from actual practice. It comes from
actual experience. However, when we, students, want to take a break from the theoretical
learning and enjoy and learn of the real world, we are punished with more time being kept within
the confined walls of the educator. How can we be expected to have book smarts and street
smarts when we don’t have an even amount of time dedicated to both.

When you try to speak out, you are told that we do not value education. That you do not truly
see the bigger picture. Yet it is only when a disruption occurs when they come to actually listen
to what you have said. Though it is only blamed on outer world problems such as games, family
problems, etc. Not the impactful stress and workload. Not the constant interaction with the
aggressors that accompany you to school.

We need more counseling, more people who can truly guide us and make sure we are on the
right track; not a ten-minute PowerPoint presentation.

We need more time to take a break from it all and enjoy life and family; not five minutes in
between classes within the walls of the place we see each day of our lives for 18 years.

We need someone who can listen, someone who can truly put themselves in our shoes and
look for ways where we feel comfortable; not someone who blinds themselves to the ongoing
situations that arise to avoid troubles.
We need more recreational time, more time to enjoy nature and to learn the skills necessary or
even those we find interesting; not more homework.

And, we come to you not with only problems and no solutions. We wish to address the
topic at hand and propose solutions that may help both sides of the situation:

We wish to create more days for not only American students, but for those around the
world, where in between the week, once a month, students can take a break from demanding
tasks that come from school, with no homework or projects, and relax or take a day to
themselves. This can ultimately improve not only productivity, but ironically, academic focus.

We wish to have more counselors within the schools that do not only focus on looking for
the best colleges or on ways to improve our GPA, but actually listen to our problems and help
us solve them.

And, if having time off is too difficult to make possible, then have areas or rooms within
the school where students leave their backpacks and study items at the door and take a break
from it all. Or even just a few days out of the week where there is no homework.

We believe that schools are truly not teaching us to improve the society we live in and
stand out from others, but to stay within the lines and boxes and continue through the same
path that those who have harmed the Earth have gone through. Therefore, we do not only need
these mental services for us to relax and enjoy life while we can before beginning our careers,
but also to truly acknowledge our society and, as a generation, find ways to solve these
problems that arise before our own eyes.