Dion, High School Student, CA

“Well, first of all we need education. But, I think what’s more important than the education is your surroundings, and getting to know more people and having those people skills to help you survive in the real world.”

Dion is a student at Palo Alto High School (Paly).  He was interviewed by a peer and one of our student Catalysts--Nicole--for the RE-ENVISIONED collective visioning project at Paly in Spring 2017. Check out other #SchoolSpotlight interviews for Paly by following #PeopleofPaly.

What do you think makes a “good” or successful life?

A nice education, knowledge, passion, and company.

So how do you think your schooling experience help create that “good” or successful future?

Well, I think the only reason why I would ever have a successful future is probably because of the people skills that I’m learning right now. Surrounding myself in other people.

So, what you say the purpose of school is more broadly for society?

Well, first of all we need education. But, I think what’s more important than the education is your surroundings, and getting to know more people and having those people skills to help you survive in the real world. To have people surround you and have the people skills for the real world. Because people will always be surrounded by other people, so they can learn together. But we could create a much more diverse society. You know, people aren’t necessarily equal.

In an ideal world, you probably would have school?

Well, not necessarily. School is simply a required facility that the government forces you to do. Well, you can apply the same thing, but take away the education. Have them learn it themselves. I’m trying to think about the pros and cons about schools. I think schools are pretty important right now, but I don’t think they would be necessary if we had other ways, other methods, which we definitely don’t have in this world, like more advanced technology.

What do you think is the most important thing you are learning in school?

Probably, I’d say humanities. I mean, I’m not learning it, but some of my friends are and I think that’s pretty important because it’s not like really any other class, it takes you out of your own boundaries. Like, it makes you think outside the box about more of like the meaning of life and unanswered questions that might never be answered.

Who has been your favorite teacher until now, and why?

I think Mr. Geller has been an amazing teacher. First of all because he taught me so many things, and he opened my mind to physics, and now, because of him, I really like it now. I mean, he’s really intelligent, and I just look up to him every single day. Every single day that I think about physics I’m like, ah, Mr. Geller’s amazing. Oh, yeah, I was supposed to be truthful, right? Keep on going.

So, is there anything that I’ve asked so far that has made you think about school or life that you’d like to talk more about?

I guess the fact that in the past few weeks we’ve talked a lot about human rights issues and after our new president has been elected. People have been going through these protests, talking about women’s rights and human rights and all those things, and I think that’s really important. And I really like the fact that it’s brought up during school.