Essay/Term paper: A greatly troubled system - school

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Essays

The formal education system used in today"s schools is greatly troubled indeed. We are

oblivious to the hundreds of thousands of students oppressed by

tyranny that encapsulates our schooling system. From homework and

grades to the progression of school; schools need changes. This

system stands waiting, while the talents of many young men and women

are exposed to a backward system with hypocritical framework. One of

the many examples is the policy of homework. It seems that this tends

to be abused to give students mere busy work, while students in their

free time should be relaxing, and doing activities they enjoy. Yet

another flaw among the many, is the grading methods used today.

Afterall, a letter or percentile could never fully represent a human

being"s interpretations, with many positive and negative sides and

emotions. These "judgements" tend to cause for great stress and are

in effective. Finally the last point to be stated in this essay

(seeing as if all the points were stated this would turn into a novel

and not an essay) is the matter of the pace of school and

specialization in courses. Courses should be more varied and options

given as well as changing the pace and time of school. Plain and

simple; a more flexible form of education would prove to benefit

everyone. With greater specialization, the learning process can

become quicker, more efficient and less tedious. In the following

paragraphs the points stated above will be further stressed. The

concept of homework in our formal education is wide spread

propaganda. This highly unconstitutional form of schooling tends to

be more busy work under the much repeated cover of "reinforcing

subjects learned." This disguise has flailed for years but the truth

shall soon be found. Homework crowds the free time of students; free

time that should be used to do other productive activities. Homework

causes much stress to students which leads to the deterioration of

interest in learning and eventually all hatred of anything school

related. As Mark Twain so beautifully put it, "Don"t let your

schooling interfere with your education." This quote referring to the

fact that experience in life can be gained outside of school in great

abundance and proves the production of a much better education than

that of sitting in a class-room scribbling characters onto paper.

With a slightly longer and more efficient school day, time could be

optimized and homework could be abolished in its entirety. A true

balance of work and play could be formed leading to a bounteous and

supreme education. The formal education system could be incredibly

more productive and beneficial if our system of merit was modified.

The "godly" judgement made by teachers seems to have taken on

catastrophic influence; such influence that could change the life of

a young individual. When we take a step back and look at the logic of

such a concept it is highly ironic. A percentile or letter,

representing a student"s performance over a period of time seem

logical? Later in life do adults working for a living receive such

judgement? Must men and women of today invest sweat, blood and tears

into a silly number? The answer plain and simply is no. With some

changes in our system we could produce an ideal system devoid of

formal grading. Teachers could merely make a more human judgement of

the personality, pro"s, con"s, and things to improve in a student. A

modified system of grading would be greatly more efficient and

prevent the unneeded anguish of thousands. Another one of the major

perils in our system of education is the progression of learning from

Kindergarten until, for most people college. The length and pace of

school is in dire need of reform. More specialized classes need to be

established creating a more efficient school day. Courses should be

more varied and specialized for students with special strengths.

Accomplishing this however, certainly not an easy task, will optimize

learning for formal higher education. It seems ironic that in this

modern world we must spend so much time and effort learning for 17

years and still seem to have an average education. Afterall, two

hundred years ago, one was considered highly educated if they could

read and write. And even 50 years ago, a high school degree was

greatly appraised upon, however, now it seems even a good record and

a college degree makes you merely mediocre. Why don"t people realize

the truth, that people are all specialized in their talents and

interests and a more specialized system would benefit everyone? I

will restate that through the modifications in homework policies,

course options and specialization, and the grading system the modern

system of education would become more efficient and much more of a

comfortable environment. Students will learn things they are

interested in, in a system of such compatibility that young

individuals may excel greatly in their learning. Through this,

students would develop more advanced thought process at earlier ages,

minimizing the years of schooling or possibly even better conversely

expand on the material learned. Changes in homework policies would

positively affect the atmosphere and attitude of school and students.

With modified merit students would learn to work and improve

individually on weaknesses and excel with their strengths. With the

new millenium coming up a reform in our school system is inedible.

This archaic system still used in this modern day and age shall

finally fall to the development of a superior system of education

Yes, with major changes in the formal system of education it could be

a certainly ideal system of learning.