Unappreciated Education

   Let me first say that yes, I should be writing my other essays (Hamlet and poetry) but to be honest, I'd rather write about ↑ this topic because it's something that I've thought about for a while now. And I thought what better way to express my thoughts and ask questions (and also procrastinate even more on the two essays that I have to write) than to do it here.
   It's been on my mind lately that why do we always complain about going to school? "Why am I here?" "What's the point?" "I hate it." "I wish I could be at home." "Such a waste of my time." Every single student has said something like this at least once in his/her life. Yet kids in third world countries, especially in Africa and Asia, crave and so deeply desire the education that we in America take for granted. I see documentaries on TV or articles and pictures on the internet about children in dirty clothes gathered under a freeway overpass or in an abandoned building learning the simplest math or English from a random adult who volunteered or was deemed a good enough teacher. What these kids wouldn't do for the free education we have here in the USA and other countries! So why is it that we don't appreciate it as much as them? I mean, don't get me wrong, I understand the value of education and want to continue for many years but I have done my fair share of complaining about not wanting to go, wanting to spend my time at home doing other things. And even in general, why do we take for granted the things we have in our daily lives? Maybe because we get so accustomed to having them that we lose sight of their importance and the trouble it took to get them?
   I honestly feel bad when I compare the trouble kids in Nigeria, for example, have to go to of walking miles to get to school compared to the six minute drive I have to get to mine. And yet I know that those little Nigerian kids would appreciate my experience so much more than I enjoy it myself. And I also know that money is a factor, setting up the school, finding teachers, building the classrooms, furnishing and equipping. It takes loads of money to get a school going, so I understand why education is so hard to come by. But what I don't understand is why we hate it, or the kids undervalue it so much here when it's so much more valued and esteemed by kids in poor countries. I think that as kids/ teenagers we think we have so many other important things to do with our lives than sit at a desk all day and learn... trigonometry (which is actually a useless subject). We think that we're so cool, and we have all these cool things to do that are even cooler than going to school. Many of us don't understand and appreciate just how lucky we are to have free education.
   So while I don't have a full and complete answer to my question, I do have somewhat of a solution, a hard one but a solution nonetheless. We have to learn to appreciate what we have, how lucky we are to have a public education system so that everyone can go to school, no matter how poor. I wish I could just magically transport a fully equipped, functioning school to the third world countries, or even swap out the useless, never-going-to-see-the-value-in-school kids for the ones who would. I shake my head at the kids who just take up space, not fulfilling their potential, just letting the minutes (and their lives) slowly tick away. It's frustrating and saddening.