As I get older and closer in college, I am realizing the real ineffectiveness of our school system. I believe there is a real and rising problem in the way our education is structured. The school system focuses much too heavily on educating students in all subject areas, and while this is important in young kids, late and even early high school students should not be forced to take classes which do not correspond with their life goals.
If we look at the majority of public high schools in the United States, almost all of them require four years of English and four years of math. Most require several years of science and history also. Taking Nazareth into consideration, our school requires four years of math and English, along with seven credits of science and history combined. That is just for main, core subjects. These requirements are incredibly destructive to students who know what they want to do in college, but have their coursework pre-set by the school. For example, I am going to college for a degree in physics and applied mathematics, yet next year I will be forced to take another English class instead of a physics course (sorry, Mrs. Jameson). Then, in college, I will likely be forced to re-take that English class anyway.
Some students may be in the reverse situation. Calculus is something an English student will never use in the real world, so why should they be forced to learn it in high school? We should allow them to replace their higher level math courses with English courses.
Now, in no way am I advocating for students to not have required credits. Everyone at some point should have to take English, math, history, and science courses. However, reducing the amount of required credits in each subject by one would allow for much more flexibility in scheduling and may allow students to pursue their passions.
Another part of the school system which exacerbates and encourages the above problems is a limited choice of classes. More students would be willing to take classes in their non-preferred subjects if there were a wider range of less competitive classes. Consider those who do not enjoy math, but still have to finish their math credits. They would much rather take a class such as Real Life Application of Math or Game Theory (a class where math is used to figure out the best approach to different board and card games) instead of calculus, which will never matter to them. The same goes for English; why are there not more creative writing classes? The school system has become too driven by competitive classes where the hardest material is forced down students’ throats. Contrarily, sometimes the most useful material is not the most difficult, and students should be given these opportunities.
Everyone has had their personal opinion about this, and I would love to hear them in the comments!
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I completely agree with what you are saying. I'm going to have serious trouble getting in all the classes that I would like to before the end of my Senior year. It would be much easier if I had more credits to work with. I believe that the classes that we think aren't important however, still have some merit to be mandatory. I want to go to college for aerospace engineering, which is one of the least English based subjects out there, but there is still writing in that field and many others like it, including the Physics and Applied Mathematics that you are working for. It may not be the main focus of the major, but in the job, you still need to be able to write well. I'm not saying that you need to be able to write as well as an English major, but there still is a rationale behind having a mandatory, although minimal, English curriculum.
ReplyDeleteI 100% agree. I think having these requirements can be very helpful, as it forces students to try new classes and potentially find something theyre interested in, but for the most part i think Its doing more harm then good, and I think it would benefit students a lot if they had more freedom.
ReplyDeleteYes! I've felt the same way for years. School systems are formed around the idea that "one side fits all" when in reality, we have differences in interests, desires, and future plans. Because of this, most students don't like school and very few have a love of learning. While I do believe that all students need a basic knowledge and skill in all subjects, there's a point where students should be able to branch off and take their own path. Like you, I'm not a huge fan of English, and instead would love to take more math and science classes. For another example, we have been learning American History all through middle and high school. Why though? I've learned about the same thing for years while never learning about other world history. We have to take American history until junior year where we can pick between world or European history. What about Asian history? I know so little about the history of Russia and China but would love to learn it. I think if the school system changed to allow students more freedom to learn what they want to, students would find more joy in coming to school and receiving knowledge that will benefit them in the long run.
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