High School System Challenges
“Colleges tell you, "Just be yourself." That is great advice, as long as yourself has nine extracurriculars, six leadership positions, three varsity sports, and killer SAT scores. Then by all means, be yourself!”
These were the words of Suzy Lee, a senior in Pennsylvania, in controversial op-ed of the Wall Street Journal. And although many thought that Weiss’s work was a whiny-one woman pity party, it embodied the state of society when cruelty was inflicted upon the single most important person in society today; me. Someone who comforted my position when two projects and three test forced to miss an episode of the walking dead for the first time.
But I am only an underclassmen and looking around my school I realized that the injustice inflicted upon me was common to my junior and seniors in my school.
Some of them had never seen the walking dead in their lives. But my story is only one of many.
Across America millions of students are putting their minds and body over the limit by taking the most rigorous classes and time consuming extracurriculars in what people are calling a rat race to get into the most prestigious colleges. And while some students may see their efforts worthwhile when they finally get their “cheese” in their choice of college, the damage done in the process is immense and unquestionable.
The result of this corrosive system: kids are over stressed, unhealthy, and unprepared for the uncharted road ahead. Some might say “if students hate this rat race so much, why don’t they just drop out of it?”. But what these people fail to realize is that we aren’t dealing with imaginary rats but real teenagers with some real ambitions and dreams. And so these teens often face the u...
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...n to comparisons they feel will motivate success such as “ Tim took 15 A.P.s, got a 4.5 GPA, was captain of the swimming team, did a 1,000 hours of community service, and got into Harvard. You can go too.”
The attitude has come to a point where students feel like they are a disappointment if they don’t fulfil requirements to get into such colleges.
If our education system is going to improve, we must first rethink what it means for students to be successful.
Regardless of the overwhelming evidence and simple alternatives, there will always people who shy change.
And they probably won’t be pressured to alter their viewpoint as the current school system would continue to create educated young adults for years to come.
But it does so at the risk of student’s health, character, and lives.
And we have to ask ourselves “is that a risk we’re willing to take?”
From the beginning of high school, students strap on their seatbelts and prepare for one of the most vigorous races of their lives – becoming successful. With the rare occurrence of a break, kids are expected to keep on driving as fast and as powerfully as they can in order to get into a “great” college, which would be followed by graduate school and then an actual job that would make a lot of money. In American society, common values include working hard, determination, and being so productive that free time is not even a question. However, this philosophy is taking a major toll on American college and high school students. For at least 40 years, America’s future has been steadily growing unmotivated, tired, and hopeless due to the overemphasis on performing well in school. This phenomenon is appropriately expounded in William Zinsser’s “College Pressures”, which takes a look at the top four sources of tension that cause these feelings of dejection and agitation. After reading this article, I came up with a few solutions to this national problem. It is time to switch the harsh, over-encouraging green light of education to a comfortable yellow one. In order to make this ideal transition, directors of education across the country need to primarily reduce the amount of out-of-class assignments, lighten the grading system, and incorporate days in the school year that allow students to express their thoughts about school and provide useful feedback.
As the economy evolves and the job market continues to get more competitive, it’s becoming harder to have a successful career without some kind of college degree. This creates a belief in many young students that college actually is a commodity, something they must have in order to have a good life. There’s many different factors that influence this mindset, high schools must push the importance of the student’s willingness and drive to further their education. College isn’t just a gateway to jobs, but it is an opportunity to increase knowledge and stretch and challenge the student which in return makes them a more rounded adult and provides them with skills they might lack prior to
Since America’s college system began, someone has had the responsibility of deciding who gets into a college and who does not. Colleges and universities must draw the line somewhere as to who has the opportunity to become more educated and who gets a full-time job at McDonald’s. This decision-making process has always been a difficult job and has become even more difficult in recent years as competition in higher education gets tougher. College admissions departments have come up with a system which combines indicators such as standardized test scores, high school class rank, grade point average, and essays. Different schools put different amounts of emphasis on these gauges but most use some mixture of them.
The article “How to Be a Success” by Malcom Gladwell speaks about how success is something that can be achieved if you put the time and work into it, and how success is not achieved overnight but rather through long hours of constant practice. His article is targeted to more than one group of individuals. The groups of individuals that his article targets are teenage students, young adults, adults, people who want to become an expert, or want to succeed in something they have an interest in and in general society. Another article also related to the success of an individual “An A+ Student Regrets His Grades” by Afraj Gill describes how in society many schools focus more on students’ grades, rather than their learning, and how a student is
Current public high school curriculum are simply too easy. Students are able to take too many easy classes that do not challenge them. This is the first point that needs to be focused on when trying to fix this problem. Within this one cause, there are many different solutions. However, I do not have the time here to name them all. I am going to focus on one particular recommendation that I believe would help the most.
College takes a serious toll on people, some are able to strive through and come out on top and some suffer from outside family issues, can’t financially keep up with school or just lack the skills that are needed for higher education. College sometimes just isn’t for everyone; and students can’t handle it all like I couldn’t myself.
The Overachievers by Alexandra Robbins is a non- fiction book that follows the lives of nine high school/ college overachieving students. On the outside they look healthy, happy, and perfect, but upon closer look the reader realizes just how manic their lives and the lives of many other high scholars are. It is no secret that high school and college has become more competitive, but the public doesn’t realize just out of control this world is. “Overachieverism” has become a way of life, a social norm. It is a world-wide phenomenon that has swamped many of the world’s top countries. Students are breaking under the immense amount of pressure that society puts on them. They live in constant fear that they will not live up to society’s, or their own, standards. People have put so much emphasis on students to succeed and to outperform their peers, and all before them, that it is changing them, and is having irreversible effects on them.
Imagine turning into someone unrecognizable and watching as your life rips apart, a life that you worked so hard for, because all hope is lost. You have hit the bottom of “the well of life”, and deep inside this “well of life” you understand it’s all because of students.
Many students are struggling in college. According to the New York Times Web site, only 33 percent of the college students are graduating in six years. Obviously students still need much help to succeed in order to get where they want to go. Although college can be challenging, I am going to succeed by using advice from experts, by developing strategies and ideas, and by taking advantage of the benefits offered by my college.
One of the central struggles among college students today is that they are required to compete against one another to appear exceptional. In frequent cases, students are trying so vigorously to appear favorable on paper in order to be accepted into a prestigious school or to be hired for a higher-paying job. Additionally, students are required
College success has become a most desirable goal. However, many students struggle through college. In fact, according to the Website Ask.com, approximately 15 percent of college students receive a degree. Because I’m willing to earn a degree like many other successful students, I find that college is the stepping stone to my dream goals. I know that college is difficult, but I realize that attaining my dream of a college education will require me to understand the benefits of what I’m learning, to prepare for obstacles, to seek advice, and to create effective and reasonable strategies will help me achieve my goals.
It seems as though the majority of college students these days aren’t looking to further their education because it’s what they really want, they do it to please their parents, to be accepted by society, or because there’s nothing else for them to do (Bird, 372). These expectations have led to students being unhappy and stressed, and have pushed them into a school or a job that they don’t particularly care for.
College for an incoming freshman is exciting, however, it is often focused on the social aspect such as the connections that can be attained through Greek life, parties and independence. Due to the social interactions, freshmen tend to drop out of college after their first year. Focusing on what college is meant for can prevent these situations. The pressures of college such as impressing parents, and maintain a high standard GPA-wise can lead to stress and freeze a student from achieving the proper academic performance. During the mid 1900s, college was considered more of a luxury than anything; people would attend college exclusively to acquire knowledge in hopes of obtaining a career after graduation. People in the twenty-first century, however, attend college to get away from home and enjoy freedom at parties. Education is taken lightly, and those who feel that education isn’t the main focus of college should not apply for sakes of the greater good.
Education is meant to be the key to a successful life. It is supposed to inspire great ideas, and prepare each and every generation for their future. However, school for today 's generation fails to meet those requirements. Every student knows education is important, but when school is not engaging or in some cases, even relevant, it makes learning difficult. Improving the school system is something educators attempt to accomplish every year. Despite their best efforts, there are numerous flaws students see, but adults overlook. There is a lack of diversity for students to learn, an overabundance of testing, and students’ voices are being ignored on how to create a more productive learning experience.
Many factors affect a student’s choice of staying in school, including but not limited to where they came from, their academic success, and their individual decisions. There are so many effects to this huge epidemic happening to this generation’s students. Although they cannot completely control how their life goes, making education a focus will benefit them greatly in the long run. The students can gain a sense of accomplishment that can boost their self-esteem and confidence later in life. Although school may not be the most fascinating place to go, in the end the effects are worth every minute of it.