Practice SAT writing #2

In this essay we had to talk about the emphasise on practical learning and if there is too much emphasis on it. Take a look...

Practical learning can be a useful tool into living a successful life but do people put too much emphasis on it? Without practical thinking there wouldn't be specialists in certain fields such as medicine or law. Practical learning seems kosher to most people but is it really?

Western society and culture has been influencing young minds that if you live a successful life (materialistically), you will be happy. This puts pressure on students, particularly high school students, that are trying to strive for good grades which take them to college, and then their dream job. The pressure influences the students to learn only what is needed to get to their dream job, without wasting any time on learning other new subjects and ideas. They feel like they have to focus only on practical things that apply to themselves.
Currently I play soccer for a club team but lately my concern for a good college education and job has been discouraging me from playing. Even though I'm only in high school, it feels as if I have to plan out the rest of my life in black and white already and it makes me only want to pick courses that concern with my future. With all this pressure, I know I'm probably not going to ensue this career and make it professionally so why should I bother playing soccer? If Western culture raised us to learn for the sake of learning, school would be more enjoyable for most people and there would be less pressure on worrying about the future.

I think that we have been bestowed with so much pressure upon us to become "successful business men" that it seems like we should only learn the things we need to know, in order to strive towards our goal of "living successfully". If you learn for the sake of learning, you could end up discovering something you enjoy doing and at the same time make a successful living. Instead of concentrating on practical skills, you should focus more on learning as much as you can now on anything, so that later when you do have to decided on your future job, you'll have more of a variety to pick from.