When Covid started it just seemed like a two week break, unfortunately it turned into a year of online school. Online school is very different then in person school. There are always problems with teaching online one day the teachers mic doesn’t work, another day where they can’t connect and so on. Because of all of these problems students and teachers became too laxed with the work such as passing a student who does nothing but show themselves in a zoom meeting. I realized that everyone at my school barely tried to do school work, even myself. I would count how many assignments it would take to at least show a good grade on my report card and then ignore everything else. All that mattered to me and my classmates was that we passed. I could tell that most people in the class didn’t care about what they were learning. They just wanted to pass and move on from the class. Every time I talked about this with my friends in the class they told me that they have no interest in learning about the classes in high school because getting a high school diploma was the only thing that mattered. They would tell me that learning Geometry wouldn’t help them in the future with their career.
SFD (Language journey)
Have you ever been in an unfamiliar environment and had no idea who to talk to or what to do? Chances are you have been, this is what I was going through when first entering school all the way back in elementary school. Just like any other kid, I was pretty nervous to go to school back in the day and there was 1 major problem that also led me to not wanting to be there. Not speaking English. The education system in America is made default for those who speak English, its made especially for them. Its very unfair for those who have setbacks and people fail to realize that the education system does not care about them. To the system, that kid is just another number that will eventually either go down the wrong path or find a way to overcome their obstacles. Going through school with my language setback really changed the way I saw the education system. Its was very disappointing to see.
I was born in the United States but I grew up in a Hispanic household. My mom at the time only spoke Spanish and my dad barely spoke English. It was hard for all of us and the only person who was good at English was my sister. She was in high school though. So Spanish was inevitably going to be my first language and I was really good at it. When school hit it was a different story, I remember walking in and just hearing people talk super fast, I would tell my dad I want to go to the bathroom and bring him so I could cry that I did not want them to leave. It was terrifying because being so innocent and never leaving my parent’s side I didn’t know what to think or do. I was hopeless. The first days I didn’t make any friends, people thought I was weird and no one really approached me. They told my parents that I was going to be put into ESL and my father didn’t like the idea. They had to anyways. Going up in grade, I started to get the hang of English and be able to understand and speak words. Though I could tell that I would be treated differently when talking to a teacher or asking a question out loud rather than if someone who spoke English fluently asked the same question. At the time I didn’t think much of it but looking back people thought less of me because I was a Latin-American who spoke broken English. I don’t remember having a Spanish teacher back in elementary school, they were usually either white or African American. Most students were black or white. You could see where my issue was raised from. I had no one to share my struggles with, I was the odd one out. I was different.
Saying that… not everything was terrible. There were some teachers that offered to stay with me after class and help me out in certain areas. There were some who understood my issues and why I wasn’t doing so well. What upsets me is that this education system is made in a very unfair way. You cant teach every kid the same thing and expect the same results from everyone. Some kids dominate math and suffer in English and some kids are opposite. Yet, subjects are still forced onto kids and it leads to them being insecure about their learning abilities. With my, I was always pretty good at math, it was rather simple to understand. Mostly because there was not that much English involved. I tried my best to do amazing in that subject which I did, but English was a different story for me. I would struggle, I would fail tests and it would reflect on my report card. Even though I had such a good grade in math, my English grade always made my overall report card average drop to around an 80. Every student has a gift, the school system needs to help them find their gift and embrace it. Don’t tell them that they aren’t going to get anywhere in life just because they cant do good on a math test. Everyone has a purpose in this world and everyone is smart in their own unique way.
Schools need to start treating people like people, not statistics. The education system needs to stop judging kids based off what they are able to do with textbooks and useless information. School is really not for everyone and it isn’t the main key to success. People can choose whatever route they want in life and a degree should not hold them back on what they want to do with their life. A degree should not determine ones intelligence or whether they are able to think critically or not. The system needs to find a better way to accommodate kids who aren’t as textbook gifted as others.
Breaking the mold (shitty first drafts)
The moment I was born I instantly became the betting horse of my immigrant family to do what they couldn’t and that meant finishing all forms of school. My parents put all their trust on a child who looked for them for everything to be what they thought they couldn’t be, successful. Unfortunately for my parents my inability to focus on a thing for longer than a few minutes cost me my grades and developed bad study habits. Parent teacher conferences were a mixture of “she’s a great student, attentive and an active participant” to “she has potential to be a good student”, my mom stopped going after a few years as she knew exactly what she was going to hear. Being young and unaware made me susceptible to the idea that I lacked the intelligence to become someone grand and inevitably disappointing my parents. Now in my later years I comprehend that the system is made with only one student in mind and us as students and parents we must find methods to make it work. Comparable to a pre-made mold where some of us don’t fit we must bend and break to fit into it.
My mom has always been my biggest supporter and critic, criticizing my grades, my lack of concentration, and anything in between. I know she was doing the best she could with the little knowledge she had, me being the first child she must have felt lost. She would force me into afternoon programs and clubs hoping I would stick to something, inevitably making my school day 3-4 hours longer. Anything I would show remote interest she had already found 3 programs I could get into, thus allowing me to choose what kind of high school I wanted to go into. My mom’s love of cooking consequently provoked me to choose a culinary program focused high school. A whole new world for the both us it introduced me into a different kind of education, one focused in my needs. A mixture of growing up and trust allowed my mom’s grip on me to lessen and allowed me to truly chose what I could immerse myself in. My freshman year of high school introduced me to a man that changed my views on the education system.
Tough love isn’t anything foreign to me, I mean I have very traditional hispanic parents it’s an everyday occurrence. My first culinary teacher was as strict as any chef you see on TV, unforgiving and not lenient. One of my clearest memories of him involved me being late to his class and getting a 10 minute lecture in front of my classmates on poor time management. Safe to say I was never late to his class again. While he had a tough exterior and seemed unkind, his demeanor would unravel the moment you demonstrated respect and passion for the craft. Between constant class participation and successful recipe replicas I became one of his top students. Developing a relationship with a teacher in your favorite subject to me is more impactful than most friendships made in school. He connected me with outside programs and internship opportunities to help grown my connections in the culinary world. His class helped me solidify that I wanted my career to be culinary centered. I began to learn that the education system might not have been made with people like me in mind but with the right people and motivation I could mold it into what I wanted to. I had the privilege in choosing a school that closely resembled the career path I was choosing and made school not seem a chore. School had always felt like a place I went because I had to and in that year it turned into a place where I went to learn and gain opportunities I couldn’t have had without it.
As a preteen I believed it was me against the world and I had no one to lean on that could understand me. Being in a system that only measured me based on old methods of teaching and a rubric grading system I always felt incomplete. Finding a support system within that made me feel valid and allowed me to realize that the mold I had subjected myself was malleable. Finding a professor or two that guided me and assisted me was the help I didn’t realize I needed to preserve during school. I still believe the education system is broken, and only works for a select few students who are able to grasp everything in one attempt. Leaving the others with feelings of incompetence and lost as to how to be on the same level as their peers. I know we as students have the power to change how the system treats us and chooses to guide us. Introducing peers and teachers that can support us and guide us in the journey of education really is the key.
