Is there that one subject that you absolutely despise? Do you wish that you didn’t have to learn it in school? We all know that doing something you don’t like can be excruciating and demotivating. So is it truly useful for students to learn every subject anyways?

Some students have trouble with some subjects even though they are great with other subjects, so why can’t they just avoid them? In my opinion, students should have more of a choice when it comes to what they want to learn because excessively learning a subject that they don’t like can feel unrewarding and even harmful to students. When I asked Junior, Jackson Lowery, he said that “I feel like forcing students to learn every subject will just make some students more demotivated since they are struggling with a subject they don’t even care about.” I have to agree because when working on subjects I don’t like or am not interested in it makes me feel like I am wasting my time. Like when I step into math class every single day knowing that I don’t like math I feel a lack of motivation, like I don’t even know why I would want to try in that subject and yet I’m forced to take it every year, and it takes up so much of my time. 

There would be a lot of people who would disagree and think that students should be learning all different subjects and, while I disagree, there are definitely some benefits to students. Students learn everything for a reason and there is a famous saying that “no knowledge goes to waste.” Everything that we learn can help further our intellectual and emotional growth, as that’s what education does. It is also true that “studying multiple subjects per day can be extremely beneficial for information retention.” (TheProductiveEngineer). But I feel like at some point it can be unhelpful to continue learning subjects that you hate, because when students have more of a choice it “creates an environment where students discover what they want to learn.” (TeachHub). Allowing students to stray away from some subjects would allow them to look at school in a better way, and allow them to focus further on their future. I think that even though there are benefits to learning many different subjects it still feels redundant to most students. 

Now, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that students should be able to avoid subjects entirely, but at some point, students should be able to stray away from certain subjects. What is the point of having to learn a math class every year when some people aren’t looking to go into STEM careers, and in a senior level Math class you aren’t learning things you would ever need to use? It’s obvious that people need to know Math and English to a relatively high degree, but it feels pointless to force students to keep learning these things especially when they hate doing it, and it causes them to feel resentment towards school as a result. It doesn’t just go for Math and English either, there are other subjects that cause the same reaction in some students that are arguably way less important to people who don’t want a career in that field like History or Science. Although there are some benefits to learning all subjects in school, allowing students to mainly focus on subjects that they are interested in and are willing to pursue will be more beneficial to the student’s future and will make them more engaged and positive about school. 

Citations

Williams, Laniece. “From Whiteboard to Ipad: Teaching Math Virtually.” Saint Joseph’s University, 9 Apr. 2020, https://www.sju.edu/news/whiteboard-ipad-teaching-math-virtually. 

Depositphotos, Inc. “Royalty-Free Images, Photo Stock, Video & Music.” Depositphotos, https://depositphotos.com/. 

Saraswati. “Why Is It Necessary for Students to Focus on All School Subjects?” Saraswati Shishukunj School Borsad, 17 Aug. 2021, https://www.saraswatiborsad.org/blog/why-is-it-necessary-for-students-to-focus-on-all-school-subjects/. 

Jimmy. “Should I Study One Subject A Day?” The Productive Engineer, 27 July 2021, https://theproductiveengineer.net/should-i-study-one-subject-a-day/. 

Chiaro, Chelsea. “The Benefits of Student Choice.” TeachHUB, 14 Dec. 2022, https://www.teachhub.com/professional-development/2020/12/the-benefits-of-student-choice/.