Fernando Flores

Mr.Steed
English 12
May 19, 2016
Senior Thesis
On average, high school teens spend almost seven hours each weekday (and 1.1 hours
each day on the weekend) on educational activities. This includes attending classes, participating
in extracurricular activities (excluding sports), and doing homework. ("A Day in the Life." N.p.,
n.d. Web.) It seems that a huge part of a high school students life is spent at school or doing any

educational activities. Many people believe that our educational system is a waste of time and
that students shouldnt spend too much time on a classroom , but this is not the greatest idea.
School is not just about learning how to add or how to read, it is not about memorizing what you
are told short term and repeating it. School is more than just old boring facts on a book and can
really impact a students life beyond academics.

School can teach us many important life lessons that we might need in our future and
many students are taking all that knowledge for granted. To begin with, school can impact your
life in a very simple way and you might not even notice it. One way that it can impact your life
beyond academics is that it motivates you to become a more mature person. According to
Harris, when at home, children learn from parents how to behave at home. But once they are
outside home, they learn rules about how to behave outside home . Therefore, a school-based
intervention is the way to improve a childs behavior in a classroom, be it making them more
diligent or less disruptive.(Eukil, Mark C. "The Influence of Schools on a
Child."Https://lawmindscience.wordpress.com. Https://lawmindscience.wordpress.com, Feb.-Mar.

2009. Web.) According to this article, schools can teach one of the many simple tasks to do and

that is to behave at home. This is a very straightforward way how schools can impact your life ,
but it is not such a big impact like other ways.

There is many schools out there that indorse going to college or getting an education to
have a successful life and that can be a good thing .Because you are planning to go to college,
its important you take the right classes in high school. Beginning in ninth grade, the majority of
your classes should be ones that will prepare you for admission to and, perhaps even more
importantly, success in college. When it comes time to apply to college, you want to make sure
you meet the admission criteria for ALL colleges in which you are interested.(Chicago, Ernest
G. "Your High School Classes Will Open the Doors to College." NACAC. NACAC, n.d. Web.)

But

how can this impact our lives beyond academics ? Wanting to be successful can make students
do things they wouldnt normally do. For example if you want to become a police officer, you
might go to after school activities that will make your resume look good for this type of position.
Or you might start getting in shape because you want to be a great police officer. School will
make us go out of our way just to get what we want and this is an impact that school has on us
beyond academics.

Having a positive side to something can also mean that there is a negative side to it.
Schools can have positive impacts in our lives but that's not always the case. High school can
mess with your head and get you in a lot of trouble.Teenagers nowadays care about being
accepted and liked by other students, and if that means doing anything to be liked, theyll do it.
Wanting to be popular or being popular is very common in schools in the United States. If you
belong to the cool crowd youre automatically liked by everyone and you will be successful in

life, but that is not the case. Indeed, recent research suggests that popularity isnt entirely
positive. Belonging to the cool crowd is associated with higher rates of drinking, drug use, sexual
activity and minor delinquency during adolescence. And the connection between social status
and risky behavior may be a lasting one: a 2008 study co-authored by Marlene J. Sandstrom, a
professor of psychology at Williams College, reported that popularity in high school was
associated with higher rates of substance abuse and sexual promiscuity in the three years after
graduation.("Does High School Determine the Rest of Your Life? | TIME.com." Ideas Does High
School Determine the Rest of Your Life Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 May 2016.) School can

pressure you to fit in with the crowd and make you do things that you wouldn't normally do and
this impacts many students life. It can lead to death, addiction or even jail time and this is not a
good impact that schools have beyond academics. School might impact you in many positive
ways but they are different ways that it can affect your life and many negative ways. Choosing
this path of being popular does not make anyone successful in life and it is a very wrong path to
take.

Our educational or government system can sometimes be very unfair and not many
people do anything about it. Some students might not even notice it or even bother thinking
about what the government is really doing, but some schools can cause students to overthink and
always ask questions. Another way how school can impact a student's life beyond academics is
by making them critical thinkers and always thinking ahead.All humans waste some time; that
is, fail to use all of their time productively or even pleasurably. Sometimes we jump from one
diversion to another, without enjoying any of them. Sometimes we become irritated about
matters beyond our control. Sometimes we fail to plan well causing us negative consequences we
could easily have avoided (for example, we spend time unnecessarily trapped in traffic though

we could have left a half hour earlier and avoided the rush). Sometimes we worry
unproductively. Sometimes we spend time regretting what is past. Sometimes we just stare off
blankly into space.("Critical Thinking in Everyday Life: 9 Strategies." Critical Thinking in
Everyday Life: 9 Strategies. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2016.) As you can see, this study shows that
we have atleast an hour or two that we can spare our time for critical thinking and doing brain
exercises that can make students better thinkers. Most prior research makes comparisons among
high-intensity workers, moderate workers, and nonworkers because youth who work limited
hours (especially to 20 hours per week or less) tend to perform better in school than their peers
who work intensively or not at all(DAmico 1984; Mortimer and Johnson 1998). A lot of
students might be spending their time on afterschool jobs and this is usually not a good thing but,
many schools have already put a program out there for students to use that would allow them to
use their time wisely, practice and become better thinkers. This affects their life beyond
academics in so many ways because they can always think ahead of a problem and not get
involve in anything serious. It can help students think about their decisions twice before acting
upon it.

School can have a major impact in a student's life beyond academics, whether its
positive or negative , they were always be something beyond academics and can have an
outcome. Schools know that students influence is important and can impact their life in many
different ways, but all the knowledge being taught at school is not just nonsense. As I stated in
the beginning , school is not just about learning how to add or how to read, it is not about
memorizing what you are told short term and repeating it. School is more than just old boring
facts on a book and can really impact a students life beyond academics.