A speech my Girlfriend wrote on education
I believe our society today doesn’t value intelligence and we see it as a liability rather than an asset. When we see somebody smarter than us, or maybe who just knows an answer we don’t, sometimes we say things like, “Why do you know that?” or “How come you’re so good at this?” Saying things like that, in an almost critical manner, is as if we think they don't have a life, or it's a waste of their time, but is it really? It’s not; it’s simply us viewing knowledge as something useless, as a liability to our mind and life. It's not worth it to the government and school systems; it's not an asset to be smart anymore. It’s a liability, a liability to the government to be smarter and to understand, because then their schools can’t teach to you. Take, for example, this sophomore speech. I wrote my entire speech by myself, from my own thoughts and ideas with absolutely no references. Shouldn’t it be an asset that I can organically create an idea and present it to others myself? It’s original, it’s completely my own doing, and shouldn’t that be something good? Apparently not, since it’s now a requirement to recycle other people’s opinions and regurgitate facts that don’t always mean much. This isn’t to say that needing to research to understand is a bad thing. Researching is basically a visual lecture by a teacher, but what happens when you already know the information the lecture contains? This is something that happens all too often in schools, particularly public schools.
There are three groups in terms of education- above average, average, and below average. When schools try to teach to every student in the same way, they fail at the cost of many others. Not everyone is average at everything! Imagine your own academic strengths and weaknesses, and now multiply that times every student in the school. Students’ ability levels, our ability levels, are completely varied for every subject. So why do some students end up stuck in classes where they understand, but it seems that nobody else does, or vice versa? It’s simply easier for schools to teach to one group, the student body as a whole, and act as if this is alright. Think about No Child Left Behind. The name alone is implying that all children should be at the same status. They want to equally divide knowledge and thought among every kid in the nation who goes to school. Clearly, this will never happen, as it is impossible to make every single student be at the same ability level. Lately, schools have been focusing more on the below average group to try and bring them up to par. But who suffers in this? Well, the students who are average and above average. Schools do have the right idea, it is important to make sure that students who need extra help get it, but they don’t have a way to benefit the people that are already past what they’re trying to teach. It can’t be a scale, bringing one group up and another down, there must be a balance. You need to benefit those below and above, or else being ahead becomes synonymous with meaning that it’s perfectly acceptable to idly sit by and not learn anything while other groups are being caught up.
When kids who already know the material are stuck behind with those who don’t; their potential for bigger and better things is utterly wasted. The government and public schools don’t seem to mind this, because if kids already know the material then their precious test scores are unhindered. It seems to me that schools don’t care about knowledge and learning, they simply care about results. They want us to know what we need for them to get a good grade and a pat on the back from the government for teaching us so well. Schools don’t necessarily want you to achieve. If you’re smart, fantastic, but there is a difference between intelligence and doing well in school. I’ve seen plenty of people smarter than I am fail classes and do poorly, despite being geniuses. Why? Schools don’t care enough about their success. Often times the most brilliant of people don’t do work, because they already know the information and all they see back is a grade. They’re just as smart as the kids who do the work, but they appear less smart than they are because public schools let them fail. They don’t care enough to personally help students who have the capability to do so much more.
Last year, I went to a private school in Maine. There was a boy in my grade who was very smart, but he got expelled for drugs mid-year. During the expulsion process, one teacher, Debba, did literally everything she could to try and get him help and get him to stay. Even though he had drug problems, she believed he had the capability to do better things and she fought for him. What education needs is more Debbas, needs more teachers who care about their students, care about the success of their students, and want to help them work through their problems. A failure for the student should feel like a failure to the teacher, and a success for the student should be a success for the teacher; there needs to be some sort of advising, mentoring relationship. They need to stop thinking in ideal terms of equality and focus on what actually exists. All the grades in their book have students, people, behind them- students who need more help, some who need no help at all, and some who are smarter who need an extra incentive. People are not the same, we’re different, and we all learn differently and have different capabilities for knowledge. Instead of trying to put everyone on a level playing field, education should cater to the individual.
How can each student be benefited? Well, I think public schools should be more like private schools. Private schools are more personalized whereas public schools are not. I’ve been to 5 public schools and 3 private schools; I’ve seen all of this for myself. Private schools don’t assume equality for all, they help those who need it and let those who don’t move on, and that’s the way it should be. We go to school to learn, but there isn't one way. Thats why schools aren’t perfect. It would take much more effort, but I think if the initiative to personalize public education was taken, everyone would be able to learn and succeed to the best of their ability. Knowledge is power, as the saying goes, and if we were all able to gain knowledge more effectively, we could do great things with it.
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