Dear Mr. or Madame President,

I am writing to talk to you about my frustration with the current education system in America. Education has always been an issue of great interest and attention to me. As a current student at a private boarding school in California, I spent my junior high years in a public school in Beijing, China. These two different education experiences enable me to reflect constantly on the current education system. Though no system is perfect, I strongly feel you should address the problems with America’s education as the next president of the United States.

A significant gap exists between the private and the public school systems in the United States. The most disheartening difference is in course choices and content; while the private high schools allow students to delve deeper into world literature, some public high schools most likely ban on certain American books, including To Kill a Mocking Bird and The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn. Education should never limit one’s capability of understanding and original thinking. Without exposure to these literature and other challenging contents, students in the public school system have an unfair disadvantage before they even start their future careers.

Another aspect of education that frustrates me is the common core instituted in many schools across America. The common core, a set of standards that specifies what students should learn at different grade levels, places limitations over students’ potentials. Because of common core, students who love Math cannot explore high-level math without changing his/her current grade level. These restrictions hinder students’ pursuits of passion. Education is supposed to promote interests in various fields, but common core undermines such a goal, making education a set of standards to follow instead of a journey of self-discovery and growth.

My final advice to you is to pursue for real change in education instead of symbolic actions. Many politicians today call for construction of more schools in multiple areas. But the issue here is that schools itself cannot fulfill the actual meaning of education. Only a positive learning environment and sufficient resources can achieve the real goal of education. That is why instead of building schools, please build good schools, reform the education policy, and create a healthy learning environment to make schools better.

Today’s youth are placing their expectations on you to solve these issues. We are all waiting to see reforms to the current education system.

Sincerely,

Victoria Liu