American Schooling

The school system in the United States of America has been based off of agriculture for more than hundreds of years. Changing this system would be very extensive and could be very difficult. On the other hand, it is not impossible. If I would change this system I would change the grading scale, timing, and the motivation of the students from the time they first start Kindergarten.  It just will take time and a lot of effort.

            Presently the grading scales are at the top, A’s all the way down to F’s. This, from the beginning, has labeled students if they are fit enough or not to take that specific course and receive credit for taking it and their hard work, when in fact if they did do an amazing job with their work ethic and time put into it, they can still get a failing grade. Take from example, say you worked and did your very best on a paper, met all the requirements, and did everything the directions asked you, do you expect to get a passing grade? Yes. But in schools, if it is not matched to the highest standards and you do not meet the “smart” requirements then you will get a non-satisfactory grade.

            This would be the first thing that I would want to change because kids blow by assignments just looking for the answers, getting no knowledge and not learning anything from what they have done. On the other hand, there are the kids that poured their hearts into their work, know the most and have actually learned the material. Saying this, I would change the way that grading is done, so instead of all accuracy I would want the student to be graded on his or her actual work ethic.

            All around the United States the average school starting time is 8:00am. While this is a not so unreasonable timing, knowing teenagers and how their interior clocks work this is very early. This would be the second thing that I would change because of the good results I have noticed on days that my school, Kennedy High School, has a two hour delay. I have noticed the teachers are more alert, ready and prepared. Students are more rested, ready to go, and have a greater acceptance to learning. Pushing back the start time an hour to 9:00am will definitely help the students, just as much as the teachers.

            The last thing that I would do would be to help change students’ motivation. When you first go to school, Kindergarten, you are taught that learning new things is fun and exciting. Once you go into first grade your creativity is still there, but not as much as when you were in kindergarten, first grade is where you switch from getting a sticker or not to grading. And it gets worse and worse as you go on into high school and college. We are labeled from the very beginning that we are either good enough or not good enough. By changing this from the very beginning of schooling, having kids be creative, hands on and not worried about getting that A+, it will help kids know that it is acceptable to fail, try new things, and not to just do work for the perfect grade.

            Changing these things will help them in the long run and help them to be the best student that they can be.

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