As future participants in humanity’s ever-changing and advancing society, there is no doubt that the youth of today must be ensured a quality education. This term of “quality education” may differ drastically depending on the individual; however, society has defined it as the humdrum system put into place by officials years ago, which still stands today.
The ‘system’ in question is the current state of public schools, and frankly, the way they are run is not helping today’s youth grow and mature educationally. The current structure of public schools is ineffective as it suffers from a lack of academic diversity and creative expression, emphasis on static standardized testing, and a mundane schedule system that sucks the life out of its participants.
One of the lesser obvious issues of the current public school system, but arguably the most important, is the lack of academic diversity and creative expression. In recent years, ethnical and racial diversity has increased, which is a positive, but in this sense, academic diversity is referring to the concept that students should be able to learn the way they desire, and study the subjects in which their minds crave. The current system does not allow for this, and instead forces every student to learn the same material, regardless of individual passion. Thus, a lack of interest in learning may develop.
In the TED Talk “Do schools kill creativity?”, Sir Ken Robinson brings up this point, using the backstory of the late British dancer Gillian Lynne as an example. He states that when Gillian was eight years of age, the school “wrote to her parents and said, ‘We think Gillian has a learning disorder.’ She couldn’t concentrate; she was fidgeting”. A doctor determined that she did not have a learning disorder, but rather, she was just bored of school, and wanted to be a dancer. She eventually graduated from dance school, founded her own company, and became a millionaire, all because she did not fit into the standards of the already-developed public education system.
The pre-defined subjects she was forced to learn in school did not interest her, and it was automatically determined that she was “no good” because of this. Thus, the structure of public education could greatly improve if it was adapted to cater to students’ individual desires, allowing for more academic diversity and creative expression. In turn, they would develop a new passion for learning because they are now learning about the subjects they are genuinely interested in, rather than those they are not.
It is undeniable that the current education system puts a heavy emphasis on standardized testing. It uses these tests as a way to measure students’ intelligence, as if the intelligence of a student was merely based on a multiple-choice test.
Carrying over the point of creative expression, these tests are based on pre-determined subjects that students may not have a desire to learn, or even be good at. Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post puts it well, stating:
Standardized tests are “fairly narrow in what [they] measure — focusing chiefly on basic academic skills and processes.”
The primary way in which the education system values intelligence, a mere multiple-choice standardized exam, is insufficient in determining a student’s intelligence; thus, the idea that the education system is successful in this day and age is simply laughable.
Everyone has heard it and seen the stereotypes on television: students attend school, sit at a desk all day, bored out of their minds, waiting for the day to be over, and when it is over, they dart out of school, only to wake up the next day and do it all over again. It is a known fact that students of both today and of recent past are bored of the impractical education system they are forced to participate in.
As a former student myself, I can confirm that sitting in a classroom for eight hours straight was not a fun experience, and like everyone else, I would wait for it to be over, only to head home with the little time I had left in the day, go to sleep, wake up and repeat the process over and over again. It is something that every kid must go through, but does not want to, even if they want a good education, like I wanted and eventually did receive.
John Taylor Gatto, a former New York City public school teacher for over thirty years, puts it well in his essay “Against School: How Public Education System Cripples Our Kids, and Why”. In the article, he asks the question, “Do we really need forced schooling? … six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years. Is this deadly routine really necessary?”
Later in the essay, he brings up the point that some of the most intelligent and influential people who ever lived, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Edison, among others, were educated but did not participate in the forced schooling system that the current public schools enforce. They did not sit at a desk in a classroom for eight hours a day, being forced to learn basic information regarding mathematics, history and the sciences. They were “unschooled, perhaps, but not uneducated”, as Gatto puts it, which supports the theory that the current forced schooling system may not be necessary to produce great minds.
Like all ideas, concepts and materials that exist in society, the public school system is not without flaws, as deeply discussed. However, there are many who stand on the other side of this debate, claiming that the current system is fine and should not be altered.
They claim that the system is benefiting students to achieve academic prosperity; however, statistical data of students’ confidence in America’s public school system shows that in 1975, the confidence percentage was as high as 62%, but by 2014, that number had fallen to an all-time low of 26%. Additionally, student confidence in the current system has dropped by 36% over three generations of students spanning 39 years, proving that the system is outdated.
This data proves that the public school system is no longer up to par with modern society, and is now outdated. If action is not taken now, the numbers will continue to drop and the education of future students will be devastated.
Education is arguably one of the most important aspects of humanity, and it is not to be taken lightly. Those with an education are better equipped with the mental tools necessary to survive in society, and is known that they live longer, too — according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, life expectancy “is about a decade shorter for people who do not have a high school degree compared with those who have completed college. Educational attainment appears to be very important in differentiating U.S. adults’ prospects for long life.”
There are many aspects of the public education system that are flawed, with the three biggest ones being the lack of academic diversity and creative expression, the emphasis on static standardized testing, and the so-called “forced schooling” system that traps students in a dull scheduling cycle.
Overall, if these aspects are improved, student confidence in public education, as well as graduation rates and percentages of academic success, will greatly improve over the coming decades.
It can be done. All it will take is effort. Unfortunately, that may never come.
Chris is a writer and publisher who travels America, and loves doing it. He also loves pizza, video games, and sports, and can tell you a thing or two about each. Follow him on Medium to be informed of new articles.
