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.
The incident that changed my views on education
The incident that changed my views on education would be the coronavirus of 2020. It seemed like it came out of nowhere and everything just got shut down and we were all put into what was supposed to be a short-lived quarantine. The regular school became a thing of the past and online was the only option. Obviously, at first, I was stoked about just being home and not having to leave my house every morning for school. Being able to relax during classes and not have to take them seriously because the teachers were very lenient when it came to handing in work late or having incomplete assignments. The google meets would be filled with students that were either not paying attention or sleeping, myself included. It seemed so convenient and easy for the first month or so, and then the next year was all online. It was the same as the year prior except more organized. But I began to miss what I had taken for granted, which was in-person classes and my peers. Online learning was an experience that I did not want for my last years of high school. I used to think that school was a boring place to be but it is most definitely better than being at home for 2 years doing school. I had in-person classes every Tuesday but it just wasn’t the same. There were barely any students in the building and the classes would still be online. The coronavirus changed my views on education because it made me appreciate classes in person and not take them for granted.
A event that changed my views on education
An experience that changed my views on education was my high school at this “milestone in life” everybody moved on to the next grade and i also realize that almost everybody graduated even the ones that did not show up to class and missed school for days so i feel like in school to they put so much pressure on you to be perfect not caring about mental health and then leave you very stressed in the regards to living up to the idea of being the perfect “A” student when the reality of it is if you do the bare minimum to past your gonna move on to the next level just like the person who went all out and got like 99 plus average. I feel like back in high school the teachers would make you feel so bad if you did the bare minimum to pass when you technically did your job you passed right? Given this information that I figured out for myself I always maintained a 83- 85 average to get the honor roll cause I figured out that’s where the bare minimum requirements were if I wanted to have an okay looking transcript for colleges. The reality of the education system is that you have to find a way to work and interpret assignments in your own way while trying to keep a good mental health. You will be fine because I feel like if your mental health is not there you won’t learn anything.
