Dear Future President,

Albert Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” I don’t think people understand how many kids relate to that fish. They are swimming upstream in class and never finding their talents or gifts. Schools turn millions of kids into robots.Then when students aren’t like everyone else they think that they are useless and lose faith in themselves. Schools are killing creativity, individuality, and most of all our belief in ourselves.

We all know, no two brains are the same. So why does our school system teach like a one size fits all. A physiologist once compared school functions to a doctor prescribing the same medication to all of his patients. The results would be awful and only benefit a few of the many. Each student has different strengths, and different needs. They have different dreams and different goals, yet, we teach the same thing the same way.

Everything is changing in the world for the better. Our technology has improved immensely since 100 years ago. Our televisions, cellphones, freezers, and cars have huge differences. Except our classrooms look exactly the same. Nothing has changed. We still have the board in the front of the room with our desks in a certain order, and we have to raise our hand to speak. Yet, we claim to prepare our students for the future. Back then we needed this but now we need to move on. The world has progressed so we need to progress. Now, we need people who think creatively, innovatively, critically, independently with an ability to connect.

Also, teachers have one of the most important jobs in the world yet they are underpaid. “ Teachers should earn just as much as doctors. Because a doctor can do heart surgery, and save the life of a kid. But a great teacher can reach the heart of that kid and allow him to truly live.” said Ms. Sheller, a teacher at the New York School of Ballet.

Today, parents often blame teachers for their child’s problems, when it’s really the whole education to blame. Most of the people who make our curriculum have never taught a day in their lives. They are obsessed with standardized test and believing that filling in a bubble will determine our success. Frederick.J.Kelly, the man who invented standardized testing, said “These tests are too crude to be used and should be abandoned.”

We need to get rid of our common core. I do believe math is important but no more important from ag and art. This way we give all people with gifts a chance to be successful. For example, Finland does whatever it takes to make each and every child successful. They focus on collaboration rather than competition.

We have customized everything in our lives from our homes to our twitter pages, so why can’t we upgrade and change our school systems. There isn’t one solution, but we need to get started. Although students are just a small portion of our population they are our future. I believe in a world like this, where fish are no longer forced to climb trees.