I often hear students complaining about having to take an hour out of their schedule to dedicate to their Language Arts credit requirement. It’s always the same cry of “But I’ll never use it! I’m not going be a writer or an English teacher or whatever. I’m going into math/science/business/art!”

Except, they’ll find out that they’re entirely wrong.

It’s bound to happen. With any sort of career there will always be a factor of communication. How do people effectively communicate? They use words. They use language. And guess what? That language is most likely going to be English for us.

My grandfather once worked in an industrial chemical plant, and he told me about applicants who were extremely brilliant — utterly qualified — yet when they wrote, they wrote like fifth graders. They could not intelligently translate their thoughts into text. These applicants did not do well on their resumes and cover letters; they couldn’t properly convey their qualifications. As a result, these people sometimes lost out on jobs to people who were just as qualified but were able to communicate through text more efficiently.

Another cry of dissent might come from those who dislike Language Arts. “I understand why we need to learn things like grammar and syntax. But what’s the point of learning about rhetoric or poetry? Why do we have to write literary analyses?”

First and foremost, English broadens people’s minds. In those classes, you are required to read pieces of literature that you probably never cared to read nor ever will care to read. I know I would have never willingly read “To Kill a Mockingbird” in sophomore Advanced English nor “Siddhartha” in AP Literature and Composition. However, once I was prompted to start, and forced, for the sake of my grade, to finish, I found that I thoroughly enjoyed both novels. Not only did those required readings introduce me to styles and subjects that I never thought to care about, they introduced me to new thoughts and ideas. The same concept is applied to poetry. I never once cared for poetry until the unit on it in my sophomore English class.

Now, as my AP Literature teacher Regina Harden says, you don’t have to like what you’re assigned to read, you just have to appreciate it. And everything that is assigned to you to read does have something valuable to offer. There is a reason that these books are required.

Analyzing literature, especially rhetoric, is a crucial skill that an unfortunate amount of people lack. Understanding rhetoric and how it works is the best way to not be easily persuaded by it. Also, by analyzing literature, you are developing critical thinking, logical and analytical skills. These skills can be applied to analyzing more than just literature. You can analyze politics, business offers, human psychology and much more.

I entirely believe that the four year Language Arts credit requirement is more than justified–it’s necessary for shaping students into well-rounded adults. Even if you despise English classes, just grin and bear it, you’ll be entirely better off for going through it.