The Odyssey #1

Personally I am a fan of ancient mythology. I love sitting down and wikipedia-ing about the Ancient Gods and Goddesses. In the past I thought that I would love to read The Odyssey on my own time outside of school, but now that I think back on it I realized how right I was. School does some amazing things to a person. We get an education, meet new people, make friends that we will have for the rest of their lives, but also put enormous amount of pressure of us to do the best they can, be categorized as a Foundations-Student or a Normal-student or as a Enriched-student, have 50+ year old teachers say they know what is going on in our lives and know why we act the way we do, our smartness defined as a simple A, B, C, D, or F. We are taught things many will never use in real life, and are likely to forget in the days and weeks and months to come, while no one seems to teach us how file taxes, pay taxes, deal with money, anything about dealing with a bank, or my generation's social security problem to name a few. No, we are taught that if AB = CD and CD = EF, then AB = EF. When will that come up in my future? College? Probably. After that though? Maybe I can get a tax break if I can prove that I know that AB = EF. School also takes people's genuine interests and turns them into chores. If someone handed me the Odyssey and told me "Have fun," I would read it. Not only that, I wouldn't read just to get through it, like I do in school, I would take in every word and enjoy every second Homer's words wash over my brain. In school, I'm handed a book and told "Pay attention to the minute details, if you don't like it I don't care, and there will be a 100 point test on it", and adults wonder why we kids turn to television, and adults wonder why no kids ever seem to read on their own time. Adults turned reading into a chore. I hate the Odyssey. I hate how a simple sentence is turned into 3 pages worth of torture. I hate having to read this with minimal energy after an 8 hour day, I hate having to reread the same page again because I couldn't get it the first time. I hate having to read the Odyssey because if I don't, I have no future. Bad grades leads to no college, and in today’s standards, no college means no future. No college means that I will have to work my ass off in some job I hate in order to retire. I hate the Odyssey because I am forced to read it with my future on the line. My future shouldn't be determined by how well I did on a test, or what my GPA is, or the years of college I've taken. My future should be determined by my will to learn, my interest in learning, and my dedication to learn.

Rant Over.