At some point in every student’s life, he or she has probably complained about school. I know I have. Even so, this complaining, I believe, can be taken too far. In the halls I’ll often overhear students make negative comments about SHS. They’ll say “Oh this school sucks,” and “I hate this school,” without any sort of lighthearted intent. What is most troubling is not only the frequency of these remarks, but the consistency in tone and phrasing of these complaints across the schools I’ve been to.

How can anybody make such negative claims when schools try to provide safe, educational and accepting environments? I think all students should be more grateful for what their schools have to offer them. Not all students realize how much their schools actually provide them with.

I am not a teacher, parent or school official, only a student, and these are my personal experiences as someone who has attended a total of seven different schools. Even at what I considered to be the worst year, I was still able to extract some sort of appreciation from it, within and beyond the classroom. Yes, I complained about an endless number of things, but my experience helped me realize not to take anything for granted.

By far the worst year that I ever spent at any school was my fifth grade year. Everything that I remember was a disaster – the administration, ways of teaching and the majority of students. Essentially, this school was the epitome of poor quality and everything that I would avoid in a school.

Although, I did manage my way through, taking away a lesson much larger than any teaching standard or spelling test. For the first time, I truly understood what it meant to be grateful for something, specifically for my school. Never again did I complain about my future schools in an ungrateful, demeaning manner because I knew that I could be at another bad school.

Students should be more grateful for the opportunities that they have, especially the opportunity to go to school. Even if they have been or currently go to an underperforming school, seek out what makes it great because I can almost guarantee that it will benefit them in one way or another. So, just think before saying something negative about school, because it can’t be that bad, right?