The one significant event I can think of that had an impact on the way I view education was my first year of high school when we started to study European history. I actually wondered why I needed to learn European history? It had know impact on my life, all it taught me was all the horrible things that white people did to other races to gain power, money and land. Literally I learned that there was not a race of people that had not been oppressed, marginalized or discriminated against by white people. I wondered if we were being taught this history as a warning on not repeating the past? Then I realized the education system in our country thinks this history is really really important and this is why 9th grade students like myself and thousands of other kids have to memorize this ancient and outdated information as a standard of learning. As I continued to learn history in the proceeding grades 10th, 11th and 12th grades it was still more history on what white people did, who they conquered or fought a war with to get more power, more money and more land. I did not see the value in learning this history, I don’t see the value of it now! It would have been more beneficial for me to learn how to open a checking or saving account or to invest or how to save for the future than to learn European/American history. The educational system in the US does not prepare children for the real world. It focuses too much on the past and not enough on the future. We need to do better for students by incorporating more practical and beneficial subjects in school.
