NOTE: This is the opinioned version of a thesis I’m currently working on since my history class is currently on muckrakers. Since I haven’t really been here in forever, I figured I’d post it here. I dare you to challenge this, but first allow me to analyze American education in all its glory using my high school as an example.
Damn, I have adopted the “American attitude.” I should drop out of high school just for thinking such things. No, I should get shot in the head.
Ask an American twelfth grader this: How many signatures are on the Declaration of Independence? Typical answers include “thirteen,” “I don’t know,” and “Why the hell are you asking me this?”
The answer is fifty-six--just in case you wanted to know.
Ask an American twelfth grader this: Who’s the Speaker of the House of Representatives? Funnily enough, some people said, “d**k Cheney.” Out of twelve people I asked, maybe only two or three answered correctly. May God have mercy on American education.
Just in case you wanted to know, the answer is Nancy Pelosi. To the nine or ten people who didn’t know, I would suggest you start watching the news more often than Prison Break. Don’t be afraid of Wolf Blitzer’s beard or Larry King’s eternal youth.
Let’s face it. Other countries may think of America and attach the following labels: lazy, fat/obese, rude, the world’s police force, selfish, corrupt, and uneducated.
Wait a minute! Did Nishin say, “Uneducated”?
Yes, I did. Well, to be more precise, I typed it.
Uneducated is a strong word. Uneducated, according to my shitty dictionary, simply means “not educated.” It’d be remiss of even Americans to refer to themselves as “uneducated.”
“IGNORANT”--there’s a word we haven’t seen in this essay yet. Yes, Americans are the epitome of ignorance. We are at the very bottom of geographical knowledge. We are history-illiterate. About half of America didn’t read a book last year. One-third of high school students will drop out in major city areas. We have a right to an education, and about one-third of us give up that right.
But there is also the laziness factor. There’s a girl in my Pre-calculus College Prep class whom I’m acquainted with. On our first quiz, we weren’t allowed to use calculators. She was freaking out because she’s become so calculator-dependent. She even admitted, and I swear to whatever you want me to, that she didn’t know her simple times tables we learned in the third grade and have been using since then. We can’t even do simple math without a machine.
By the gods, American education is tanking. What do we have to blame? Let’s be American about this and blame every single thing we possibly can: The No Child Left Behind Act, New Jersey’s state government, the town’s Board of Education, the teachers, the other students, the school atmosphere and rules, the lack of interesting courses, the lack of useful courses, TV, technological advancements such as the iPod, parents, the work given is overwhelming, and let’s go as far as to say terrorists because we’re Americans.
Notice how “the student him/herself” is not in there. We’re Americans, and we have a rather peculiar attitude which I have deemed the American attitude. Yes, it’s such a creative title but an accurate title. There is no other way to describe it. This American attitude comes in two fundamental parts:
1) Grades don’t mean as much as we think. Students don’t realize this and are discouraged.
2) Where is the practicality? Lack of practicality does not mean you should just give up.
3) Intelligence is laughed at by peers. What is more important than “having a life”? Oh, success.
Teachers always say, “I don’t give you your grade; you earn it.” It’s true whether you like it or not. Grades themselves are pretty unfair. If you got only four out of ten wrong on a quiz, you failed with a sixty. Does that mean you can’t do any of it? No, it just means you can’t grasp a few basic concepts. Four out of ten wrong doesn’t mean you failed (which is what a sixty means) but it means you just need to practice a little more.
Now, if you had sixty out of fifty wrong, you need to stay after school for extra help. But even in that instance, it still means you have some idea of what you’re doing. Is it not discouraging to have your teacher effectively say, “Well, you got four out of ten wrong so you failed the quiz”? In this sense, Americans are quitters. Our AA of education is simple high school algebra. I have seen this one too many times in my Algebra II College Prep class, and it saddens me.
When asked when we will use this or that in “life after high school,” they always say one of two things. “The state mandates that you learn this,” or “You use this unconsciously/You are effected by this in your day-to-day life.” My Algebra II CP teacher had a unique answer to this: “Learning how to factor different ways is very useful. Even if you don’t actually use it, you’ll pass this class. Therefore, you’re telling future employers that you are capable of learning to do something in a certain way.” I like that response.
The ideal dream: You do well in high school, you get into a nice college. You get out of college after doing just as well, and you get a well-paying job. Successful high school career is the gateway to a decent college. A decent college is the gateway to a well-paying job. By transitive property (a concept one can learn in high school geometry), a successful high school career is the gateway to a well-paying job.
The issue of practicality should stop there, but it doesn’t. Do I really need to know the difference between distance and displacement? Do I really need to know that velocity is a distance and the rate of how fast something moves as opposed to speed which is only the latter? As time progresses, certain stipulations in regards to education is needed in order to survive. Remember Darwinian biology? What happened to a survival of the fittest? That’s what high school prepares us for--a survival of the fittest in “life after high school.”
I was sitting in my Physics College Prep class the other day. It’s way too easy if you ask me. And if you know me well enough, you’d know that I hate physics. It’s a boring science that only explains limitations. I kept thinking, “When am I going to use this?” Well, as someone who aspires to be a prosecutor for the state or federal government, blood splatter patterns first came to mind. Then a number of other things relating to the field followed.
Was I anymore motivated to pretend to care about this Physics CP class? No. Physics is physics and will never become remotely interested to me. Why? Because if I didn’t have such aspirations, I would most likely still be asking myself, “Why do I need to know physics in depth? Why can’t I just know the basics?”
After the bell rang, I sat through a boring period of gym in order to get to my favorite class: Foundations of the American Legal System. This is perhaps the only class that everyone, despite their career goals, will need to know for “life after high school.” (American Politics ranks pretty high up there, maybe tying with a law class, but social studies in general is needed for “life after high school.”)
The person at the top of the class of 2010 laughs at us. He/She is laughing so hard that he/she will probably become another Bill Gates. The argument, now that I think of it, is that even high school drop-outs can become successful. But would you really want to take that risk? Look at the job market. The best job you could possibly get right now is that loser who scrapes the grills at McDonald’s. As that teacher from Danny Phantom once said, “It’s your future. Do you want fries with that?” Corny, gay, even funny in a pathetic way, but it’s true.
The importance of being educated is just as important as that of being earnest. (By the way, that’s a reference to Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.) What is so wrong with being educated, with being knowledgeable? Nowadays, the brainiest children are often mocked. I mock this one kid I’m acquainted with who is the second or first in my class for having no life other than schoolwork. “Having a life” can be rather self-destructive if it is prioritized over schoolwork and success. The number one kid will probably find a way to impact my “life after high school” life.
If anything, it should be the other way around; those who have the American attitude should be mocked by those who don’t. So go ahead. Continue your high school career with the American attitude. Let those who are number one in your class make the big decisions for you when they’re in a position of power. Or let the number one kid find a cure for cancer or Alzheimer’s or ALS. Let the number one kid overcome the jeers as he/she continues his/her itinerary of success.
I dare you.
Just remember that the number one kid in your class will eventually find a way to improve your life. Laugh if you must now. Just remember to thank him/her later.
