Revising the School System

Dear Mr./Mrs. President, As a student, I am aware of the importance of education. It keeps citizens sharp and more qualified for different jobs. But once you are inaugurated as president, I would like to see a change in the educational system. All students are different from one another, whether it's their learning style, passions, or attitude. The school environment and curriculum only focuses on a particular mindset that narrows down to one specific group of students. Tests are great for students to problem solve and work under pressure, but a curriculum that is built upon tests will not give students the educational value that is required to build as an intellectual human being. The classroom today in the U.S. is fairly large and is mainly taught through a lectured styled learning. Many students learn differently, and cannot effectively learn through a lecture. There are different kinds of learners, kinesthetic learners (working with your hands), visual learners, auditory learners, and “read-write” learners. A lectured based classroom covers auditory learning and sometimes visual learning, depending on the subject. This style of teaching needs to change because it is not able to connect with every student, thus leaving some student with a broken understanding of the topic. Other than getting students experience under pressure, tests don't give student any depth when it comes to learning. Tests must be limited and should not be something that a curriculum should be built on. An average, student takes 112 mandatory tests from kindergarten to grade 12(Washington Post), calculated at using 20-25 hours every year to test. All of this time could be used for something more rich and fulfilling, giving students a better learning experience. Students do not enjoy coming to school because it is considered to be boring to students. According to livescience.com, 75 percent of students are bored of school are bored because of the material and 25 percent say that it is because of lack of “interaction” with the teacher. The material the students don't like is common core, English, Math, etc. The solution to this problem would be to include common core with projects that students would enjoy doing, with a discussion after class to cover as many learning styles as possible. This would make students want to come to school and be confident about the day that lies ahead, creating a better student. The school system today is something that needs to be revised. The classroom and style of learning is not effective and needs to be changed. Classrooms only teaching students who are strong auditory learners or visual learners. Tests need to be limited but not taken away. Having too many tests will taint someone's education, while getting rid of tests will make students unprepared when working in stressful situations. Students lack motivation when coming to school because of the material and the teacher. Changing these elements would improve the school system and change the way students see school. Sincerely, Camden S. Works Cited washingtonpost.com nea.org livescience.com