Education: In A Different Approach

When it comes to education, people (particularly students) generally define it as going to school to learn to read, write, multiply and cram for an exam for the next day, but very few see as a guidance of life, what you call ‘The Real World’ training facility. After all, it is understandable since the environment around them emphasizes that exceptional grades and a high GPA is the key to success. School should not only be signified as a place for academic studies; but a place where students learn about others around them, themselves, numerous amounts of opportunities they have to make a difference, the knowledge that there are those who care about them, the nourishment they are provided with, and the fact that you do not have to be ‘top ten’ to become and be involved in movements that help change the world.
As a senior in high school, I can not help noticing that a majority of the time, my school mostly favored students with high grades and an above average GPA. While that in itself is not a bad thing, it still leaves the rest of the student body without much support. Due to these actions, students with real potential get looked over too frequently missing out on special programs like the Gifted and Talented Program, which only have one way to be recognized (academic exams) instead of multiple ways. Due to this factor, students either give up trying to reach the high academic levels, feel discouraged and below their mates or even fail to focus on their social and character skills along with their academic goals. An equivalent factor to academic obsession, the failure to connect with each student to a one- on -one level is currently frequent. It is understandable the ones first reaction to how a school can personally connect with each and every student and whether it is already the responsibility of the counselors and teachers, that in it self is great, but is it really enough? Along with self discovery and personal connection, food itself is another major factor. It is a popular saying that ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day’, but mot every student has the benefits of having breakfast at home so they are either subjected to free or reduced breakfast(lunch). Providing food that is within the health standards is not enough to help students through out the day, the quality and quantity also play a huge part.
Solutions on bettering education would be to reach out more and develop more programs dedicated to engaging ALL students to their highest potential (like different ways to enter the G.T. program other than a written exam). Creating more dates and organizations that are especially for calling each student in and connecting with them takes a lot of time, but is worth it in the long run. Being in touch in what goes on in a persons life not only gives them the confidence, but decreases the possibility of confusion and misunderstanding. Last but not least, the food students are provided with should be with high quality food. A person’s body is really important and should be taken into consideration and the better the fuel, the better the results get. After all, the students of today are the future of tomorrow, so the changes in education make the changes in tomorrow so much better.

Wow. Is it a bad thing I can relate so well. XD This seems all so very true. I'm in the 10th grade and I'll just say it now, my grades should be better then they are. But like you said, when one student is over looked because their grades should be better, you feel like it isn't really worth trying if you can't be noticed. I feel that way a lot in my school because it is the same way. Though I'm in Honor classes, I feel like I'm not living up to the title. It's hard though, when no one seems to care about you if you're grades aren't any good. And the food, I never tried it but everyone says it's awful. XD They really do need to something about that. Maybe its just public schools? Or do private schools get the same meals?
You made some very reasonable points that I could see many students agree with. You explained them well too. I'm sure, though, if you sent this to school board, it still wouldn't really affect the outcome of how schools look at their students. Not because it wasn't good, because its great, but because the school boards don't really listen to anyone. >.> That's just another fact and outlook of its own.

You had a lot of run-on sentences and misspelled words in this. Combined with the rather large paragraphs, this was not easy to read.

When you're writing about topics that you want to get the word out about, it's always a good idea to make sure they're as easy to read and understand as possible. This means writing with shorter sentences, breaking things up into smaller paragraphs, having no spelling or grammar mistakes, and having a clear organization of your ideas. Right now, the only thing you have is the organization; everything else is a bit lacking.

So I suggest that you go through and see if you can reword your sentences and make them shorter. Also see if you can break up the paragraphs into bite-sized chunks. Lastly, make sure you have as few spelling and/or grammar errors.

On another note, I believe this would fit better under General Articles. If you wish to have it moved, please PM me and I'll see to it.

This really wasn't organized well at all. I'm still confused by what your argument is... you tried to define what "education" is and how to improve it, so you defined it as this:

- academic studies
- a place where students learn about others around them, themselves
- numerous amounts of opportunities they have to make a difference
- the knowledge that there are those who care about them
- nourishment
- the fact that you do not have to be ‘top ten’ to become and be involved in movements that help change the world

And then it looks like you're trying to say how people can learn about themselves and their community. So... how does that come about? My grandfather, in education, would say that this would be the "torrents" or defining moments that you have to face before you can fully learn about yourself. He used to teach literature, so he would point out the defining moments of the characters, etc. So, that means there has to be conflict and there has to be a struggle to truly find out who you are. How can education help with this? You don't quite say. But I can tell you that learning about yourself and others is trickier than merely existing or co-existing, which is what you seem to be saying. So, what sort of conflicts can happen? Well, school artificially creates a conflict so you can learn about yourselves by making you go under academic pressure, or the GPA. Soooooooooo... XD

As far as building communities go? From my understanding, in high school one can usually make clubs or something that pertains to their interest. There may be low membership, but the opportunity is usually there. And if it's not there, then there is the option of creating an extracurricular club -- school is not the only path to this sort of thing! If you don't want to take the effort and do this sort of leadership exercise, why should people spend their time to make it up for you?

Making a difference? Most teachers went into teaching to be able to make a difference. Trust me -- very few go in for the pay. So, they know that sort of idealism and they want to teach it to you, lol. But people are usually only idealistic about where their interests lie. So, for teachers, their passion is teaching and so they want to look at teaching in an idealistic light. For doctors, it's helping people, etc., etc. What needs to happen is an education of current events. There are tons and tons of resources talking about things that need help (education, for one, but there are tons more). All you have to do is open your eyes to the current events around you. Since you have the internet, you can do this easily. Read the news. What sparks your fancy and makes you want to join it so you can make a difference? This, of course, is a highly personalized thing. I like the science-y stuff that would make most people cringe, so if I can make a difference using genetic recombination, you can bet your sweet fingernails that I'll do that. But, it requires a knowledge of the fundamental subjects (academic subjects which your teachers are supposed to teach) plus a knowledge of current events where you are primarily responsible for. I mean, I guess teachers can make you read current events by making you write reports on important issues of the day. But still.

As far as food? How exactly does this relate to education? You never quite explained this, or at least in a satisfactory way. Everybody needs food. From your argument, we should just distribute low-cost food to everyone.

I don't know. This didn't seem to be a thoughtful analysis at all. Combined with the numerous grammatical and spelling errors, it made for a very poor argument.