Education Narrative Draft – Jalin Slater

Unlike most Education Narratives, this narrative is going to be a critique of the American education system. While it’s not a unique stance, the american education system fails the people within it daily. My history with education is just one of the many examples of near missing a catastrophe. The education system attempts to turn unruly children into functioning members of society while at the same time showing that the exact same society they are supposed to join, cares little about them themselves. The system is far from a perfect one, but it should have a focus on creating an environment that emphasizes how important education truly is.

Early on in my educational career I started to amass a large amount of absences which were never addressed until my late high school years. Even with all these absences, every school I’ve ever been in let me slide by year after year without correcting my behavior. I started missing school for the basic reason that my mother was sick. In my life it’s always been just me and my mother so I somehow got it into my head that it was my job to stay home with her as much as possible, which in hindsight just sounds like a childish excuse to miss school. Despite me missing school for weeks on end and still getting sent to the next grade, school quickly became boring and I became quite disillusioned with it. It wasn’t until I was nearly a senior in  high school that my “sliding” stopped abruptly. I was a whole 33 credits shy of graduating. After thinking I could get away with anything I was simply and abruptly told do not pass go, do not collect $200.

After hitting the limitations of putting in no effort with school I was given a choice by both my parents and school: go to a transfer school or get my GED. In my eyes a GED was tantamount to failure. I also didn’t want to leave my current school as I had been there for almost a decade. After months of back and forth something in me relented, some part of me knew this wasn’t the way things were supposed to go and wanted me back on track. Leaving my old school and going to a transfer school was the best decision I could have ever made. If I didn’t I doubt I’d have graduated high school. The key difference between the transfer school and normal school were the staff. While most teachers were a bit distant, the teachers at the transfer school took the time to know you and tried to help based on your individual needs. That’s where I feel the education system needs the most help. It’s a vicious machine that teaches you that you’re nothing but a cog in the machine that has one path in life. The compassion and love they held for teaching forever changed my standard of learning.

My story isn’t a unique one but think about all the people who have had to stay home to take care of a sick loved one or thought they had a better use of their time than school? What happens to those kids who end up not knowing the true value of an education? Those kids end up falling out of the machine, ground up and spit out without anyone to actually care. Traditional education could benefit more from compassionate individuals who truly care for their students.