Response to "Success" (Copied from Tumblr)

I am a strong believer in not making excuses for poor academic performance, and I believe that the hardest workers will eventually rise to the top and stand out, but the system we have now makes it difficult for individuals to develop and learn in their own learning style. The cookie-cutter approach to education that we have, the frenzy to do best on standardized tests, I feel does not prepare one for any real life experiences. Instead of understanding a concept or realizing the historical significance of an event, I am noticing that students are just trying to memorize the information in a short amount of time, so that the tests will be easier; and I do not blame them in the least. The standardized tests that are used now do not encourage teaching for the sake of understanding and learning the material, but teaching so that the students can remember facts for the test. It is undermining how we learn, because when I try to converse with fellow students, it is difficult to find one with a deep understanding of a topic, just a memorized algorithm or timeline. Homework is another one of these ways that school is “sucking the soul” out of students. The student who said that we have to find out what we can get away with not doing is right; homework now takes so much time that it has strayed from the only acceptable explanation, the augmentation of classroom learning, and it interferes with normal life processes, like socialization and outside activities. A worksheet or short reading in each class would be enough to reinforce the day’s lesson, but homework combined from all classed should not exceed more than 1.5 hours. I think that teachers are pressured to give homework because it is so ingrained into the culture that a teacher who minimizes the homework given will be looked at as a bad teacher, when in fact they would just be doing the students a favor. 

I think a college education pays for itself; people who have a college education make much more money during their lifetime, they have a significantly lower unemployment rate, and the actual information makes a person just much more informed. I certainly would not want a teacher that did not go to college, an accountant who knows nothing of the tax code, a surgeon who does not have years of training, a lawyer who does not know the law and so on… Yes, success in life is not only dependent on a college education, but the average person is not Bill Gates, who could have taught his professors more about coding than he could have learned from them. 

The sorry fact is that we are slowly losing our childhoods, a time when we should be with friends and doing activities, to the stress of doing four hours of homework each night and not gaining much more knowledge than an hour would provide. That is why I also think that drug use is so high among teens and young adults. There is not enough time for wholesome and traditional fun, many teens argue, so they must alter their minds and bodies to try to escape the rigors and stresses of schoolwork. 

Regardless of the system in place, the smartest and most creative will still rise to the top of the class and separate themselves from the rest of society, but the average student can still have a fulfilling life without losing their childhood. 

-Matthew Corman