Dear future President, I am writing you today because, students today are not motivated to succeed at school. Students don’t view school as being pertinent to their present or future lives. We learn how to solve quadratic formulas and graph linear functions but it goes in one ear and out the other. Students are taught to memorize material for a test but when the test is over, students forget everything they learned to start prepping for the next test. The school system isn’t focused on the students learning progression, instead they are focused on test scores, school ratings and money. It’s no wonder students are unmotivated to wake up at 6am 5 days a week to come to a dirty school to learn about things they don’t care about. Students don’t have the option to be outside or to learn about something they are passionate about. If students learned about something they were passionate about, they probably wouldn’t forget the information like they do with algebra, chemistry and history.

Schools should teach students about more real world subjects like money management, time management, creative thinking, healthy living, relationships and communication, individualism, etc. Classes like these would enhance motivation as opposed to teaching confusing math to students who aren’t passionate about it. While learning some math and science may be important, it’s not practical because students won’t remember it for more than a month and it most likely won’t be used in their everyday life.

Some people may argue that this form of education isn’t important and that students should learn algebra, chemistry, history and English. Although these classes may be important to an extent, high school should not be primarily focused on them. Teenagers are young adults and many are undecided on what they want to do for the rest of their lives. According to an article by Business Insider, 27.6% of students drop out of high school due to failing too many classes and 25.9 % dropped out because they were bored. School might not have to be fun every day but it shouldn’t be driving students out because of how boring it is. Every student learns in different ways and every student likes to learn about different things. But we continue to be taught the same exact things in the exact same way.

I believe the school system in America needs to change because the U.S., which had some of the highest graduation rates of any developed country, now ranks 22nd out of 27 developed countries around the world. I think education is the most important issue in our country today and should be improved on.