Critique of School Is Hard
School Is Hard is a blog that originally had the objective of helping students get through the trials and tribulations of college. As the blog founder matured, however, he took on a broader perspective. Making a strong declaration of his feelings against the modern education system, School Is Hard founder Patrick promotes “knowledge, creativity, and grades.” Although the author is no longer primarily concerned with helping college students specifically, there are still many college student-help articles on the site, like
New Ways to Improve Study Skills. Today, however, the topics are more varied, including articles like why young people should get hired despite a lack of experience, as well as topics like Comedy Central’s open mic challenge.
The good
There is a lot to like about School Is Hard, including its very mantra on knowledge, creativity, and grades. With over 100 articles focused on helping students, the site makes for a good resource. The blog also tackles important issues relating to the recession and its effects, such as unemployment and debt troubles. The integration of video posts also makes for a diverse collection of content.
The bad and the ugly
The bad side of having such diversity in content is that the site also diversifies its audience. In some cases, this can be a good thing, but a relatively small blog like School Is Hard may have some trouble if it does not have a niche audience that will keep returning to the site. Another problem with the website is that it is rather sloppily designed. For example, the entire right margin is full of links that are indistinguishable from each other and from the normal font on the page. In effect, the blog looks cluttered, difficult to navigate, and painful on the eyes. If the author can set his focus and tidy up the School Is Hard design, then there’s lots of potential for growth.
