Is school or work more important?

Question

When I was 16 in a biology class, a teacher asked me, "Is school or work more important?"

This was the day after I told my group that I couldn't meet with them because i had to go to work. I told the teacher (a big c*nt) that school is more important and I got a grade lower on the project (not too shabby for doing nothing)

Anyways, I now feel that I should have said that work is more important, because in a way it is, since that is what i'll be doing for the rest of my life. I ended up working in retail after graduating from college, which I was doing when I was 16 as well. The biology I learned ended up being useless.

Answer 1

Coming from a teacher, don't you expect that the 'right' response would be that school is more important? I don't know what you're selling, but for the sake of example, I'm going to say life insurance. She's selling education, you're selling life insurance. You call customers to sell them life insurance, and they ask, "Isn't it more important to have money in the bank now?" And you have a response that's pro-life-insurance, I'm sure.

But seeing as this is a story long in the past, I'm just going to sum it all up to bitterness.

Answer 2

At age 16, school is more important. School is preparation for work. And if you get up the courage to do more than selling shoes with your life, you just might find out that those biology classes were useful after all. If nothing else, for teaching you how to apply the scientific method. Even a good mechanic needs those skills!

Answer 3

School,
Yea, Work will provide lots of great life experiance that school cannot teach. However as a minor you should not have your grades suffer for something like work.

Like when I was in high school I still got good grades however I always worked until 11ish so I had trouble staying awake during class. That really sucked

I'm not agreeing with your Bio teacher or anything (she should have been a bit more understanding like give you an opportunity to make up for missing you're group meeting).

Also did you try talking to your boss.

Answer 4

I think that school is more important. In order to a good job, you need to have good grades in school. What you end up doing with your life depends on your school grades. (especially college ones) Your schooling leads up to work and comes first in life. Think about it: You may not have used what was taught in that biology class, but what about your other classes? You learned how to read and write when you were little in school, and then you learned about the environment around you and the history of the world too. Think about all the math you need to do in your job right now. It should be a lot!! I think you answered truthfully on that project. But of course, its only a matter of opinion...

Answer 5

My answer is neither. What is most important is skills, which you can gain through both school and work.

Though it sounds like your teacher was insensitive. When I was in high school I had to work to help pay the bills, and at times my schoolwork suffered. But I've been out of college for almost 10 years and the lessons I learned working at a young age are still valuable.

Answer 6

Once you're past age 30, you know your job (you probably know it now, I doubt it's all that challenging). However, there's always more to learn. As you get older, you want to keep expanding your mind, keep learning new things. Work pays the bills, but it probably doesn't improve you as a person. Learning has the potential to do that. So, if by 'school' you mean learning, then yes, I think school is more important than work. Or, say it this way, embracing new challenges is more important than the daily grind of working for money.

Answer 7

I personally think school is more important. Even tough some classes are useless, its important to get an education. School gets you the job. People don't want to hire someone with a bad education. So in my opinion some classes are unnecessary for some job fields, but overall school is very important.

Answer 8

I'll have to disagree with you here. Education is more important because it can open more doors for you.

Example: I know a man who worked for Home Depot for 10 years to WORK UP TO as much as I STARTED earning my first year as a teacher.

So if you feel that your college degree did not advance you any further than when you were 16, you may need to re-examine what your degree qualifies you to do. You may be cheating yourself.

Answer 9

School is important so that you can gain skills for the work force.No information is useless, it depends on what you do with it such as you may have learnt something from biology for a crossword.Things that you have learnt are retained in your head for a purpose.

Answer 10

Both school and work are just things we do as part of life. In the overall scheme of things they are simply what we do so that we can spend time doing the things that really matter - paying attention to family and friends. School is preparation for work, and both are sidelines of real life.