Dear U.S School board of Education,
I use to love school. It was fun; I learned fractions with brownies and got to eat them afterwards; We dissected a frog in science class when learning about animals, We got to grow a plant when learning about photosynthesis. Learning was fun and useful. If i wanted to start a garden as a 10 year old, i could because i learned how to in school. In recess we got to run wild. The teachers never gave us homework and they made sure we understood the lesson before going on.
Now, everything is different. School is soul sucking, tedious, and mind numbing. We don’t get recess because were,”too big” and it’s “not middle school anymore.” But what if High School kids needed recess to just be a kid again, to not worry about the 2 upcoming test for just 30 minutes. Have you ever thought of that?
Recess is not even the only issue. We are bombarded with tests, projects, and homework all at once. The teachers never take into consideration that we have other classes that also gives us work. Imagine this: You come to school on a monday relieved that you finished all your homework and a project over the weekend. Then your first period teacher gives you homework and another project to do. Your second and 3rd period teachers inform you there’s a quiz the next day. Then for fourth period, guess what? You have more Homework. For your last two classes, you don’t have homework but there’s definitely 2 tests on thursday which you have to study for on top of the other stuff. After dealing with Monday's workload, you’re given more, tuesday, wednesday, thursday,and friday.
School is stressful and unhealthy. I get about 4 hours of sleep a night,sometimes less. It's like teachers and the school board forget that we're human and that we have a life outside of school. Sometimes I barely eat because of all the work I have. I have a sister to take care of and chores to do and that's only my story. I know many kids who have it much worse. It's not fair and the amount of stress we get as high school students is unreasonable.
I've learned how to shove things in my brain for a test. I've learned how to pass. I've learned how to get by but I haven't learned how I'm supposed to. I can't tell you what I learned in school last week because all of that information I forced into my brain has been poured out into the test. I can no longer remember how the carbon cycle works. I don't know what an independent clause is.
Studies show over 1.2 million students drop out of high school per year in the U.S. and 25% of freshmen don’t graduate on time. Those numbers are too high for an industrial country that is supposed to be leading in education. (deleted) Obviously, there’s a problem. The average high schooler gets only 7 hours of sleep. According to experts, we’re supposed to get 9 hours of sleep.
That is enough evidence to declare that we need change! Our school system is outdated. We are still using this industrial-age form of schooling. Our schools teach us how to live in corporate America. The goal is go to school for 12 years, go to college, and then work for the rest of our lives. That’s not a life that any of 21st century kids want. Making the curriculum harder every year is not change. It’s a setback. We don’t need all the information you’re feeding us. We don’t all want an office job, not all of us want to be a scientist, doctors, teachers.
We're not being educated correctly. Why not make education cater to our individual hopes and dreams? Why not make us excited for school? Let's do hands on activities and go on field trips. Relate the lessons to real life problems. Tell me why I need to know polynomials and how it'll help me in the future. Stop being so lazy. Make school start later so we can come to school well rested. Make lunch edible. Reward us for good grades and even just putting in effort. I'm not asking to be babied. I'm asking for appreciation, respect and understanding. I'm asking for education to be fun again.
Sincerely,
another sad and sleep-deprived high school kid.
