Too Little to Late: The Youth's Loss of Interest in Learning

Growing up, parents, teachers, and elders always emphasize the importance of an education to the younger generations. High school students are pushed and encouraged towards college for the next big step in their life. By the time kids step into high school it’s drilled into their heads that to make something of oneself they need to pursue a college education. In reality, are high school graduates even prepared for the challenges that they will soon face? High schools are not preparing their kids for the “college experience” that in turns leaves them lacking the know-how they will need for the workforce.

From my experience, as a student myself, I can relate to the impression of being unprepared for life after high school. During my high school years, many teachers do not clarify the lesson and expect students to understand the materials by a certain time. Learning only half a chapter and must learned two chapters by the next day. Some schools, however, only cover subjects

The needs of the students go unheard and are masked by insufficient teachers, cliques, and the need to prioritize popularity and attractiveness. According to Let Teenagers Try Adulthood, "By the time those who graduate from high school go on to college and realize what really is at stake in becoming an adult, too many opportunities have been lost and too much time has been wasted." Instead of promoting individuality in students and offering educational opportunities, vain ideals are promoted and have little effect outside of high school. Students have thus neglected their education because of false expectations which are promoted along with unsatisfactory educators. To address the issue high schools must promote the importance of receiving education instead of focusing on vain ideals which students believe define their importance. Also, qualified teachers and faculty members should be put in charge of molding and shaping students into successful individuals who are prepared for life beyond high

Today’s youth feel the need to be perfect. Having any flaws has been beaten into kids as an awful quality. Scared of ridicule from their peers and parents, today’s youth work hard to maintain an impossible image. Students lose sleep, a basic human need, to complete their ever-growing amount of homework. They miss out on social interaction, a key component to any healthy human’s life, just to complete homework, work a part-time job, play sports, commit to after-school activities, and household responsibilities. Young people tend to feel overwhelmed and are unable to properly control and release their emotions. Older generations think these outbursts are because today’s youth are entitled. On the contrary, today’s youth are competing on a personal, physical and even emotional level with every other person their age and older to be the best to have the best opportunity to live a good life.

While in high school, many students complained about standardized testing and how ridiculous it was our education standards were on the line for it. How we never learned anything long enough to remember it. Students are supposed to enjoy learning. Instead students dread their mornings and hours spent in a classroom. Pass the OGT or the new PARCC testing in order to graduate. Being taught at an impossible pace that many cannot remember the information for the next year but instead just remember for the moment. There are teachers who are sitting fancy, but don’t even do their job to the core standards.

In America, the system of education has one of the greatest influences on the people of the country. From the common workers of the U.S.A, to the teachers, the entrepreneurs, and even to the parents of the students, everybody is impacted by our current education system. Most importantly, the children playing the role of the students are impacted the most from this. At the end of the day, these children are the ones receiving this experience. After all, it is the education that a person receives that shapes their future. It is the morals they grow up with, and most importantly, their educational experience at school. Sadly, this “educational experience” does not affect the students of the generation in a positive way. There are many flaws with

I think that part of this problem is that students go to school because it is what you are supposed to do when you graduate high school. Very few high school graduates attend college because they want to get an education and know what they

Although high school experiences are of value and contribute social skills to the lifestyles of teenagers, Leon Botstein’s critique of the American high school sufficiently addressed the concerns with the high school educational system. Botstein articulates his opinion at the beginning of paragraph three with the clear statement that “the rules of high school turn out not to be the rules of life” which teenagers are expeditiously learning. Students are not being properly prepared for the trials they will encounter in their adult lives after they graduate from high school and into this true barbarous world. This generation of graduates will be innovating society and reaching new heights. Schools should be shaping creative and problem solving individuals that can be easily integrated into society. The president of Bard College and the author of Jefferson’s Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture, Leon Botstein, outlines the issues that are affecting high school education in his 1999 writing of Let Teenagers Try Adulthood.

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.

There are the students who decide not to go to college and start a career instead. They enter true adult life right out of high school. Life for those students is not getting any better. From 1987 to 2007, average lifetime income for a high school graduate dropped by 20 percent while the average lifetime income for college graduates has raised by one percent (Davies). The value of a high school diploma is dropping. The knowledge gained in high school is not enough for a good paying job. For those looking to go on to a higher education are also unprepared. They are paying large amounts of money for college to learn what they should already know. This problem with young adults can be traced back to school before high school.

It is common knowledge that the younger a person is, the less likely he is to work towards long term goals. Elementary children cannot be left to their own devices like this to work on their own education; they do not have that level of intrinsic motivation. They need constant support and encouragement from both home and school. But since Generation B is not receiving this, they instead focus on immediate gratification and on “what feels good.” This can lead to abuse of both alcohol and drugs, along with an increased likelihood of involvement in gang activity and violent crimes. With an unreliable background and a minimal high school graduate education, Generation B will begin adulthood in the same way Generation A did; struggling to find and maintain a well-paying job to provide for their families. This all leads to a vicious cycle of poverty that captures generations and generations of families across the nation. It is important for these children to get proper education for many different reasons, including for equal opportunity in the work force. But the most important reason is that these children, my friends and peers, are the future of our nation. We are the future governors and senators; we are the future

What children learn at a young age greatly affects who they become later in life. Hence, an emphasis needs placing on educating young children. Programs that promote staying in high school and furthering education also need emphasizing. Students through all levels of schooling need teaching that the more educated they become, the greater quality of life they will be able to achieve. By dropping out of high school or by not pursuing further education, these individuals are capping their potential.

Frank Bruni responded to a piece of literature titled, Overloaded and Underprepared. In his response, Bruni expressed his concern for American high school students. Bruni stated that he felt sad for the most driven students, the students that push themselves beyond what they should. These status-obsessed teens sacrifice precious sleep to go above and beyond in academics or extracurriculars. Young adults have begun to replace the fun of adolescence with the desire and need for perfection. Many parents want to pull their kids away from the fast track because they are worried. The question that must be answered, should they?

High school is a crucial period for all adolescences, it’s a time where teenagers are approaching young adulthood, their learning new skills rapidly, and making important decisions (Blakemore, 2011). For this reason, it is highly imperative for high school students to have positive influences in their lives, especially in their educational setting. In high school, educators play an important role in their student’s lives because they have the opportunity to have a stronger impact on their future and their goals. In addition, they also have the opportunity to, inspire them to learn and try new things, teach them how to make sound decisions, and encourage them to collaborate with their peers (Bellanca & Brandt, 2010).

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.”