America 's Preparing Students For The Future

There was a time when America’s education system was top-notch according to the culture and society. With time, a myriad of things has changed, but unfortunately what has not evolved is the American education system. The country is still following a system which was not designed for the current global economic climate. Equality, as positive as it sounds is not as sufficient when it comes to education. The system treats students equally yet expect a similar culmination and outcome. Every child has his individuality and distinct abilities; one cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. Conversely, a few of the prominent reasons why the education system is failing are overcrowded schools, the rise of technology, and following the same old school hours.

As Laurence Powell Jobs once said, “It’s not that our high school system was not designed well, but that it was designed in 1906 when the country was just out of the industrial era. There hasn’t been a substantial systemic change the way we do high school since then.” It’s no secret that the current school system used in America is outdated and problematic. With a plethora of obvious issues in need of fixing, there are noticeable differences between America and other countries. Steps needed to improve the system can be implemented. Although times have changed, the American education system has become outdated and thus is riddled with faults. When compared to other education systems, it is clear that the American schooling system is in need of reform.

Three out of four graduates are not fully prepared for college, because of this they are almost certain to take remedial classes in which they can prepare to be “freshman,” in their second semester of college. ACT’s have tested 50% of these graduates, and it was measured that only 25% of that was actually prepared in all three areas of testing. So what is wrong with this picture? The problem is American high schools are not preparing their students for a college environment, and college work. Students aren’t receiving the key work and lessons needed for college. With all the method that teachers have, which aren’t working to the extent they should be, they are honestly forced to help these students out when they should have been prepared to begin with. With that said, High School teachers are not preparing their students academically for college. Colleges are forced to do studies in consideration of improving the United States Academic reputation, and the overall education for America.

Preparing high school students for college is every parent and teachers goal but sometimes that goal is hard to achieve. Students are not getting a proper education now-a-days and they do not realize that it is going to hurt them after they graduate. A study says, “That composite score dropped to 20.9 among high school students in 2013, the lowest in eight years” (Adams, 2013). That is a very low average and it is because what students are learning in high school just isn’t sticking with them through college. After students graduate they start taking harder classes, some have to start paying their own bills, and so many other changes they are not ready for. It is a big jump to go from high school to college and I think schools can do a better job of preparing students. It is their experience and education in high school that is going to help them in college. If they are not ready they are going to struggle which will result in some not so good outcomes such as having low grades or even worse dropping out. I do not believe that high school education has prepared students for college because there are many useless classes, it is more about memorizing than learning, and students drop out in a year or less because of the workload.

The United States, schooling system is failing to provide a well rounded educational future of the millennial generation and the generations to come. Why are traditional public schools failing to successfully graduate a diverse number of students? Students of all backgrounds should graduate being able to go into the workforce or secondary schooling successfully. Changing traditional high schools to career-based schools could help education flourish, access to career-based high schools could help lower the dropout rate, allow students to truly enjoy school, and allow all students to have the same opportunity in life.

Homework is barely given in high school. Teachers try to get as much done in class and tell the students to just review their notes. I think that is terrible. Personally, I think homework should be given at least three times a week to help the brain continue outside of class and also help with time management. Once entering college to be successful you should at least study the number of hours out of class that you’re in class. This is a big difference once in college and you have never had to accommodate this skill while in high school. It’s almost as if you’re being set up to fail because so much is expected from you and you become overwhelmed with the college life that you should already be prepared

“We are now taking the lead because for too long the public school system in Camden has failed its children”, exclaimed Chris Christie, the standing Governor of New Jersey. On the one hand, The New Jersey Public School System was awarded number 1 as the best system in the nation by 2012 Education State Ranking (Morgan, 2011). Yet on the other, only 2 percent of the graduates from Camden High School scored high enough on the SAT’s to be considered college prepared. This blatant inconsistency echoes the hyper-polarization of wealth and indigence throughout not only the state of New Jersey, but also the country as a whole. In response to this crisis, NJ’s Governor Christie has proposed the Opportunity Scholarship Act, which would stimulate competition between schools and in turn boost the quality of education. The act would create this competitive open market by providing scholarship funds to eligible low-income children who attend a chronically failing school district in order for them to choose to attend an alternative public or non-public school.

Twenty-five percent of American Teenagers drop out of high school each year. What does this say about America’s education system? Are students not interested or are they tired of memorizing a subject and then having a letter grade represent how much they can remember. Some articles suggest that America should decrease the number of years that teenagers spend in high school because many teenagers already know what they want to study and do not want to be stuck studying something they are not good at or interested in. America needs to redesign the school system so it can help students prepare for their future and have more classes that students are interested in.

High school students feel more stress than working adults, and children are beginning to feel aversion towards learning. Both adolescents and children are at risk of health issues due to anxiety and less time is spent with family, playing, and sleeping. The cause for all of this is too much homework that is suffocating students. Homework causes students to sleep less, have more stress, and even forces students to give up extracurricular activities. These negative results can be improved by reducing the homework load.

In consideration, the first reason that students have a difficult time attending public high school or coping with the high school processes is because of after school extra-curricular activities, such as sports or dance classes. Since my friends and I dance many hours a week, most of the people at my studio do online high school. If we did not have online high school, most of the girls would be late to classes or not be able to come. Some of the girls in my dressing room (a specific dressing room for people who have to get to dance earlier) are still in the 8th grade, which means they do not end until 2:45 or 3:30 at a public school. They are always complaining about how much homework they have to finish on time before the next day, or how late they go to bed to finish the homework. They wish they could work online, but their parents will not let them. If they did not have an option of online high school, which has more work than middle school, then there would be a lot of tired dancers waltzing around the studio and hurting themselves. If we did not have young dancers going to class on time or at all, then there would be a decrease in adult dancers and dancers on Broadway. If we had a decrease in adult dancers, for example, ballet dancers, then many famous dance companies would shut down, and there would not be many people on Broadway.

One of the biggest lies ever said about teen years is that they’re “the best years of your life.” If you were to ask any high schooler in today’s world how he/she feels about that phrase, they may think the exact opposite. Education dates back to the earliest human life. The American Education System offers a cosmic field of choices for all students. With so many choices, students get to choose different subjects. With all those different subjects, students become busy with a lot of classwork and/or homework, thus creating stress on students. Students who are stressed by school work, such as testing, studying, and homework, should be given less to do, because it would improve student’s energy and relaxation.

taking tests, and writing essays, which all leads to grades; is the society’s view of learning. An

    With these long school days children don’t have much time to go out and be a kid.  By the time children get home and finish all their homework, there really isn’t much time for sports or spending time with friends and family. Long hours of school put too much pressure on students.  According to the state, students are supposed to have three and a half hours of homework a night. Students are assigned about 17 hours of homework a week. There is a total of 168 hours in a week and 64 of those hours are taken from us by school and homework.  Out of the 24 hours in a day school, homework, and sleep take 18 hours, which leaves students with just 6 hours to do things.  Combine that with sports and after school activities, the average practice for most sports are 2 to 3 hours, which leaves the student with only 3 hours for themselves. If you add dinner into the equation which can take up to an hour ,then students only have two hours a day. Some students also have chores which can take up to an hour or even sometimes more.  What can a student do with only 1 hour of time a day for their personal goals.

Some would disagree with this notion, stating that fewer students are dropping out of school and are graduating (National Center For Education Statistics “The Condition of Education”). While this fact is true, it does not translate to the education system being excellent. The reason for this is that the date for drop rates do not include the law passed in 2001, which is the “No Child Left Behind” that discourages teachers and schools on holding back a student. The point is, yes the current education system is getting more students to pass high school. However this should not be the only goal for the government. The goals of public education should be to provide its country with members that are well educated/prepared for the workforce so that they can contribute to society and be a productive citizen. In addition providing citizens that can compete in an international level and be hired. This brings up an interesting point, which is what is being well educated or even education. While the dictionary

Yet, the education does not stop at middle school, for high school really puts all the basic skills from elementary and middle school to work as the assignments and the exams become more challenging. We do not only learn about reading, writing, history, and math, we learn about the people around us as we associate with different personalities, and as we see what we have grown up to be and what we want to be later in life. Accordingly, the high school years are a time when teachers emphasize the importance of graduating and attending college in order to have a “succesful future.”