Mr./Madam President,

My name is Joy, and I am a high school junior in California. I, as many of my generation do, spend a lot of time on social media and I've been seeing a trend. I see a lot of people view our school system as sub-par. People all across the country think it is unfair and doesn't teach some important life necessities. So I think that as president you should do something to help our school system. So many of young adults, when they have to go on their own, don't know how to do something basic like pay taxes or change a tire. Also the native born Americans are falling far behind in our history.

Our school system is failing to teach us how to live in our country. The majority of Americans can't pass the US citizenship test. 57% of them couldn’t even define the word amendment. In our culture we overvalue sports and athletics, while undervaluing knowledge and academics. Our school system is failing our future society. Our society is becoming ignorant without knowing it. The less we know about our country, the more pathetic we become. ​The US school system teaches us math and science more than government and history. Our own citizens couldn't become citizens if they weren't born here. It is very disappointing that "Only 65% of native-born Americans could get the required six out of 10 right answers" (Korte).

Our future is in the hands of the students and our education system focuses more on quantity than quality. Americans are required by law to attend some sort of schooling, many students don't believe that we need to know everything we are being taught. American students have fallen behind in academic turnout, in mathematics, Shanghai, China is the highest performer with an OECD test, with an average score of 613 in math, 570 in reading and 580 in science. Americans scored 481 in math, 497 in reading and 497 in science. Only 2% of American students reached the highest level of math performance, and in China, that is up to 30%. Our statistics show that we are falling very behind in academics and learning. Our government is corrupt and we don’t know how to change it because we weren’t taught that we could. America could turn our education around to make us more successful.

However, I do know that my generation isn't as receptive to learning. Teenagers don't think it is as important to know about our rich history, than knowing how to play football. Our society is so ignorant that most don't want to be educated, and arrogant that they don't think they need one.

I think our system should be more like that of Finland. Finland is so successful with their education. It is an amazing accomplishment that"Ninety-three percent of Finns graduate from academic or vocational high schools is 17.5 percentage points higher than the United States, and 66 percent go on to higher education, the highest rate in the European Union. Yet, Finland spends about 30 percent less per student than the United States." (Hancock). Our school systems fail in comparison to Finnish schools. The government believes, “If you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect.” (Hancock). Our governments are more focused on making our statistics better than making our students better. Caring more about how much we are taught and less about how much we actually learn. We study math and algebra more than how we can run our country.

Please Mr/s President, we need to fix our education like the Finnish government has. "Teachers in Finland spend fewer hours at school each day and spend less time in classrooms than American teachers. Teachers use the extra time to build curriculums and assess their students. Homework is minimal. Compulsory schooling does not begin until age 7.” “We have no hurry,” said Louhivuori. “Children learn better when they are ready. Why stress them out?”" (Hancock). We need to look at our students as humans, not statistics. We need to respect student’s abilities and fix our problem with stress and anxiety. In 2013, 46% of students saw a counselor about their anxiety disorders, which is 9% more than the 37% in 2007 just 6 years earlier.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. It would really mean alot to me if you would take this all into consideration.

Sincerely,

Joy Y.