Author: Juan Tax

Have you ever heard that education it’s important to succeed in life? Since I started middle school I have noticed that students are expected to learn everything and have good grades. School is not that easy, especially if you do not fully understand the language. Classwork was so hard that I thought maybe there’s something wrong with me. Nowadays schools feel that it is just about grades and competition, which can be unfair because there are people that are gifted students and people have the money to pay for prestigious schools and tutors while the rest of us are being pressured by our parents and teachers to get good grades and be the best at everything to be successful in life. We are forced to learn subjects that are not going to be useful in life. Most of us spend their time studying just to get an A. Education is not affordable for many students even though we are told that we need a degree to have a better job and opportunities.
My first year of middle school was not easy, I did not understand anything. I remember staying up until 3:00 am just to finish a project. I wanted to get a good grade because that is what my parents expected from me. When I got my grade I was disappointed because I did not get the grade that I was expecting and when I saw the talented student get a good grade it made me feel that I was not good enough. I have worked really hard and I was able to get good grades. Seeing other people struggle makes me think that there is something wrong with our education because students have to compete with talented students which makes us feel that we are not capable of succeeding in life also we can feel the pressure from our parents telling us that we are not good enough and that we are not even trying even though we are doing our best.
Another flaw of the education system is the SAT. In High school I always studied for the SAT I was trying my best to get at least a 1300 I was not good with math and I’m still learning English it was impossible to get that score that I was hoping for Those tests are unfair because people like me who didn’t learn English at a young age might struggle with it. This causes me to get a low score. The SAT’s main focus is math and English which can be a problem to many of us since some people are not good at math or English which can cause a lower grade. Getting a low score does not mean we are not suited for college because a test can not define what we are capable of doing.
Students should be able to choose their classes because all students have different interests. Certain subjects such as math shouldn’t be that complicated, students should be given a choice to take deeper math classes or any subject. Forcefully teaching a subject that we don’t like is going to completely destroy our motivation because we could feel l dumb. Which means that a lot of motivation and imagination is being wasted. I was always taught that math it’s where and I would need it in real life. I have never used it since I finished High school. I remember “breaking my head” every night to learn equations that were important but I have used the Pythagorean theorem and many of my friends haven’t used it. This makes me feel that all of my efforts were worthless because I learned something that would not be useful.
College should not be so inaccessible for students. Not everyone has the money nor the ability to seek FAFSA and other programas. I have to work a full time job in order to pay my tuition which can be overwhelming because there are times that I don’t have time to do my homework or study which affects my grades and can cause a lot of stress and many people would drop out of college. High School students and society shouldn’t be fed with the idea that a college degree will make their life better. If anything, sometimes it could destroy it. The amount of debt students graduate with and the amount of unemployed college graduates is overwhelming debt can destroy some people’s life because sometimes people are not able to find a job and that would take years to pay.
School is difficult and every student can not understand everything that is being taught and if students are struggling we as a class should help and make sure that everyone understand at the main points of a lesson, also teachers should provide extra help for students and make lessons that can be both beneficial to the talented student and the student that is struggling.

Since I started middle school I have noticed that students are expected to  learn everything and  have good grades. School is not that easy, especially if you do not fully understand the language.  Nowadays  schools feel that  it is  just  about grades and competition, which can be unfair because there are  people that are gifted students and people have the money to pay for prestigious schools and tutors while  the  rest of us are being pressured by our parents  and teachers to get good grades  and be the  best at everything to be successful in life. 

My first year of middle school was not easy, I did not understand anything. I remember staying up until 3:00 am just to finish a project. I wanted to get a good grade because that is what my parents expected from me. When I got my grade I was disappointed because I did not get the grade  that I was expecting and when I saw the talented student get a good grade it made me feel that I was not good enough. I have worked really hard and I was able to get good grades. Seeing other people struggle makes me think that there is something wrong with our education because students have  to compete  with talented students which makes us feel that we are not capable of succeeding in life also we can feel the pressure from our parents telling us that we are not good enough and that we are not even trying even though we are doing our best.

School is difficult and  every student can not understand everything that is being taught and if  students are struggling we as a class should help and make sure that everyone understand at the main points of a lesson, also teachers should provide extra help for students and make lessons that can be both beneficial to the talented student and the student that is struggling.

I was born in a country located in Central America, where the official native language is Spanish. Like many immigrants, the time came when I had to start learning English as my second language. I learned my first words in English in school by reading children’s books which helped me improve my language skills, however, there came a time when I realized that I still had a hard time speaking and understanding conversations in English. My family could not help me although they tried to support me by teaching me the little that they knew. I mostly had to figure things out on my own. Learning English has been a difficult task for me that sometimes I feel dumb because I know people that learned English in a couple of years. Every time that I want to make a conversation in English I feel like a different person. I get nervous which makes me mess up the words and my brain stops working. Also when speaking English I often think that people would make fun of me which makes me feel insecure. To improve my English, I am trying to have the same confidence as when I speak Spanish because I believe that it can help me to better express myself and I would be able to talk to other people which can help build my English skills. Writing English also has been difficult to learn because many of the words sound the same for example tree and three or bird, bear, beer, and beard to me all of those words sound the same which makes me struggle a bit but I had amazing friends that had helped me with my writing skills they often the right way to spell words or correct my grammar. Learning English has been a challenge but I am feeling confident that one day I will be able to build and speak full conversation and confidence just like “my Spanish self”.