Do you like school? I’m going to go off on a whim and say your answer is no. Every teenager has thousands of ideas on how our schools can change the way they run things, yet there has been hardly any progress. We are still moved along in fixed age groups regardless of our learning progress. There are fixed blocks of time in which we are free to do whatever we want; within the restrictions and limitations of the school board of course. The system is flawed in more than one way and I’m here to bring some of those ideas to light.

If your beloved pet, sibling, or any family member were to pass away suddenly, would you be able to do your AP Geo work? My guess is no. You would be a wreck and in the midst of the chaos, you would hear the constant nagging to get your late work in. In society’s eyes we are seen not as people but as numbers and stats. No college is going to know who we are and the trials we had to get through to be standing where we are now. No person cannot possibly accurately decide who someone is based on where they fall on a scale.

The entire idea of education is basically a competition against our fellow peers that we never asked to be a part of. We were just sort of pushed into it against our will. We are constantly being compared to how good or bad our friends are doing on a specific subject. Albert Einstein once said “If you judge a fish based on their ability to climb a tree then it will spend their entire life believing that they are stupid.” This seems to be what society is doing to us. An example would be the way Prior Lake is taking away the concepts program starting with the incoming 6th graders. Now if you have 100 students and you force them to either take general, honors, or even AP then you are in essence forcing a fraction of those fish to climb a tree while the others swim upstream. You could make thousands of arguments on how the system cannot be fitted for each individual person. I would agree with that statement because if everything was fitted to each person individual needs than the human race would never adapt or learn anything. We wouldn’t be challenged, and you wouldn’t see any intellectual growth. But there does need to be options for everybody because without them you would see even a lower decline in intelligence than if you had each area specifically modified.

Here’s another for you. Do you actually learn anything from taking tests and quizzes? Again I’m going to go off of the assumption that your answer is no. You can’t possibly comprehend any of which your learning based on  memorization. We need more of our grades based on projects and essays. Projects and essay actually reflect on how we’re doing as a student because we put our thought and effort into them rather than simply filling in a bubble on a Scantron. “Standardized tests don’t measure the amount of smarts a person has.” -Alivia Hall 

Adults believe that the only thing we as teenagers want is to get out of school and never go again. But if we were actually given the chance to speak our truth, just imagine what teachers and patrons would learn from us? Imagine that! We actually have a brain AND it works. Most teenagers like to learn, they just don’t like how school works once they get there. I know for one that most of the time when I’m not paying attention in class it’s because I would rather not try and fail then try my hardest and fail anyways. More students are suffering from anxiety disorders and depression every day and it doesn’t work to simply chalk it up to our iPhone addiction. So this is a shout out to every teacher, counselor, parent, or staff member that has ever made you feel inferior. You can no longer blame us for your mistakes.