These days, more and more people are saying school doesn’t matter anymore. With AI doing all sorts of things—writing essays, summarizing books, solving problems—it’s easy to wonder: what’s the point of spending years in classrooms, stressing over tests and grades?
Some say getting a degree won’t land you a job like it used to. Others say school is outdated and slow, especially when you can just learn skills online, anytime, anywhere. And honestly, they’re not wrong about parts of that. The system has problems. It's due for change.
But here’s the thing—school was never just about knowledge. It was about learning how to deal with the process. Showing up. Doing things even when you don’t feel like it. Paying attention. Learning how to work with people you may not like. Figuring out how to keep going even when you’re tired or bored. These aren’t school skills. These are life skills. And if someone can’t manage these when the stakes are still low—when you don’t have rent to pay, mouths to feed, or a boss to answer to—then how will they manage when real life hits?
That said, yes, school should change. We don’t need more memorization. We don’t need more standardised exams that reward people for cramming facts they'll forget next month. What we need are schools that help people learn how to think. That give space to make things, build things, explore ideas. That encourage real discussions, real problems, real teamwork. Not just marks and rankings. More space for creativity, for messing up and figuring things out. Less punishment for failure and more focus on what people learn from it.
But even with all its flaws, school still gives something valuable. It gives people the chance to build grit. To practice discipline. To struggle in a place that’s still relatively safe. Maybe no one cheers for you when you finish a boring assignment. But doing it anyway? That’s training. Because in life, you’ll be doing a lot of things no one claps for.
Studying isn’t just about getting good grades. It’s about proving to yourself that you can stick with something, even when it’s hard or dull. That’s what makes you stronger. That’s what builds your engine.
So yeah, school won’t magically hand you a good life. But completely ignoring it and shrugging it off? That pretty much guarantees a tougher one. Especially if you haven’t built the muscle to handle hard things.
AI might change the world, no doubt. But it doesn’t change the fact that being dependable, focused, and resilient still matters. Probably now more than ever.
That’s the real point of school. Or at least, it should be.
