All through the internet, people claim our high school students to be overworked and treated unfairly. At the same time, those students are expressing that they feel they are learning nothing from school. Although high school students feel this way, some college students and graduates have a contradicting opinion on the topic, and reveal that after high school, they have gained the ability to see the full picture.

Students in high school are not overworked. Instead, they are expected to work hard; they just don’t have the ability to see past the workload.

While still in high school, teenagers are unable to study the full picture because they have a biased point of view, and humans naturally look for ways to confirm their own bias. Once they are provided with the opportunity to step back, with effort, they will gain the ability to open their mind and understand what they learned within their four years of school- whether it be academically or about life. BYU student Reece Mangum says that while in high school, he was close-minded, but when he graduated and moved on to a bigger life, he was able to look back and identify how much he learned and what moments assisted in shaping where he is currently in life.

Being taught and trained to work hard in order to achieve your goals or to meet a deadline is necessary to prepare students for adulthood. Life does not get easier, and you are not going to receive breaks because you feel overworked.

We also must not hyper-focus on the academic lesson. Just because we are not verbally being told or taught something, it does not mean that it was never learned. Mangum says that many of his lessons learned in high school came from his own personal realization rather than from the school curriculum. We simply need the strength to recognize those lessons.

Some people mention issues of student stress, and while that is relevant and serious, we will be stressed all throughout life. High school can teach students to manage their stress- a skill that is especially important in life.

This is a complicated subject with valid points from different perspectives. Considering that there is no single problem, there cannot be a single solution. Instead of attempting to fix a problem that may not need to be solved, we can create a better understanding of the issue at hand.

Students in high school are rightfully being trained to work hard, and once they commit to the idea of stepping back, they will see that truth.