What is learning?

If you ask, "Which would you rather get out of school: good grades or more knowledge?" the answer will be the same for any high school student. Good grades. Good grades have more tangible benefits; you can get accepted into better colleges, and you can brag about it - it's a status thing. There may be a student going around bragging about their straight A's and their acceptance to Ivy League schools, but they won't acknowledge all the useless extra they got, not to mention all the times they cheated too. The pressure to cheat is immense, especially in the Academy. Everyone talks about their grades, test scores, and college applications. If they aren't good enough, it's looked down upon. Who can forget the APUSH cheating massacre last semester? There is no excuse for what was done, but why do students feel the need to go that far? Because the focus of school is not learning; it's grades. If teachers were better paid, they would raise the quality of learning; if teachers had more freedom to teach what they felt was important, it would raise the quantity of necessary knowledge. Kids should not feel like their grades and test scores are the focus of their life; instead, they should be taught the importance of knowledge so that they will be more willing to truly learn.

Eliminate Homework.

What is the point of homework? It seems to be fairly pointless, considering many students just copy it from others in the end. It would be better to concentrate all work, so that it is completed in the classroom, therefore forcing students to do their own work. I also do not understand how teachers expect students to be involved in outside of school activities with all of the work they assign. As a highly involved student, it is difficult to get all homework done, have a social life, and sleep. It is nearly impossible. While I believe an education is very important in every student’s life, it doesn’t always need to be the only focus. Also, winter, spring, and summer vacations should not be full of homework. There is a reason it is called a vacation. Dictionary.com defines vacation as a “period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually for rest, recreation, or travel; recess or holiday.” I wish school teachers would follow this definition because my idea of rest and recreation does not include writing essays, doing pointless assignments, and reading boring books. Basically, the best way to fix school would be to eliminate homework completely.

Grades

What are the importance of grades?! They are only a number that supposedly represents what you know. Many children with bad grades are not idiots. they are smart who simply do not do their work or do not learn well the way that teachers are teaching.

Which brings me to teaching. teachers need to try more than one approach to teaching. not every child learns well through note taking. some are audio visual, some are hands on, while others are like to take notes. we need to pay teachers more, and in return the teachers should become more personalized with a students way of learning, and teach them accordingly. because in the end it is not about the grades, it is about what knowledge yo acquire now that will serve you later on in life. Grades are meaningless, except for getting into college, and should be done away with entirely.

#schoolprobs

A lot needs to change in the school system. People are treated too easily and it always has to be fair in the school system and that is a problem. In the work world and after high school, things are not fair. You have to work hard and do well to be promoted and earn more money per year. People need to realize this because it will be a rude awakening once they graduate from high school and move onto college. Also, students should be more involved with their schools and be encouraged to play sports and join clubs. By being involved, you are more active and have a better time and now a days, this involvement will help get you into college. Another thing is grades. College admissions rely too heavily on grades. One C because you had trouble with the class or the teacher or you were ill a lot can keep you from going to the college of your dreams. Colleges should not weight grades so much, but rather, for academic purposes, ACT or SAT scores because that tests everything in one test. If you have a bad day, you can take it again.

A lot needs to go

Frankly, I think the biggest problem with our educational system is how watered down and general it is. We take a lot of classes that are absolute wastes of time for anyone with any intelligence which is just not how it should be. Thinks like that waste time, and are causing America to have lower education than other countries. We teach for the masses and cater to the bottom tier so everyone can do everything which hurts anyone not on the bottom. To be perfectly honest, not everyone should go to college, some people are just not smart enough or not dedicated enough, and you cant change how someone was born. School should be more of an accomplishment and people should say "wow, thats great you went to college!" instead of "oh...you didn't go to college..?"

A lot needs to go

Frankly, I think the biggest problem with our educational system is how watered down and general it is. We take a lot of classes that are absolute wastes of time for anyone with any intelligence which is just not how it should be. Thinks like that waste time, and are causing America to have lower education than other countries. We teach for the masses and cater to the bottom tier so everyone can do everything which hurts anyone not on the bottom. To be perfectly honest, not everyone should go to college, some people are just not smart enough or not dedicated enough, and you cant change how someone was born. School should be more of an accomplishment and people should say "wow, thats great you went to college!" instead of "oh...you didn't go to college..?"

Grades

The thing that needs to be changed the most is grades. It is hands down something that determines our future and it creates stress and tension between students and teachers. For those who say it's just a grade doesn't understand. If someone gets a D, people that are looking for you in college will obviously not consider you. How you do in the class reflects your comprehension of the subject. It works both ways the way I see it: Students who get good grades succeed; teachers who have students with good grades look like good teachers. I don't really know what to change though. It is easy enough to say scrap the whole A-F system but there would be no way to evaluate progress and how your high school career went. I say that teachers should be hired with higher standards and evaluated periodically. That way teachers become more qualified and professional and students receive better education. Teachers then should also be paid more generally so there is a sense of value for teaching students.

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School can be stressful at times, and obviously it's important, but it shouldn't be the focus of everyone's life. What I mean by saying this is that the pressure school puts on us is not healthy, since we can be staying up late doing homework and projects, and not getting enough sleep. Grades can be stressful enough to put people into depression, and teachers can cause some to go insane from biased treatment.

My idea of changing school is that we should have more hands on education, instead of just using a book or lecture to teach. It would be more entertaining, and some people learn better that way. This would be every student's choice.

Aside from just hands-on experiences, we should also have school budget decisions to be made by students as well. Therefore, we can decide what the school should have in order to improve. There should be monthly school meetings of the entire student body, so that it can change the school in order to improve it. This should also be during a school day, so we don't have to go to class. As such, by giving students more freedom in deciding what school should be like, it would be more fitting and give a better learning experience.