In
today’s society, all high school student ever hear about is college. We're constantly being badgered with questions such as, "What’s
your GPA? What colleges are you interested in? What do you want to study? Do you
want to stay close to home?" As soon as you enter your freshmen year, a student’s life revolves
around college and what they choose to do after high school. This flawed manner of
teaching adolescents leaves them with a lack of knowledge regarding useful
things they will need to know once they are out on their own.
According to the Milton High School handbook, the seven main goals for
all graduates are to “effectively apply critical thinking skills to solve
problems, communicate skillfully and effectively through written, visual, oral
and technological means; apply tools and technology to a variety of authentic
tasks, demonstrate connections between and among subjects to enhance
understanding of the world, demonstrate originality and innovation through
individual and collaborative work, demonstrate good citizenship, personal
responsibility and character through individual
and collective actions, and demonstrate understanding and respect for the
diversity of ideas, cultures, abilities, and lifestyles in the school and
beyond”. These are goals that are appealing on paper and would lead one
to believe that they will result in the development of a successful adult. In my
opinion, they are interpreted widely throughout the school. and rarely kept in mind. In my two and a half
years at Milton High, I have yet to achieve any of these goals. My classes have
been solely based around a structured curriculum, none of which have included helping me in
becoming an adult and a better person. As an AP and honor student, all myself and my peers
hear from teachers is that we're “being prepared for college”, and I can’t help but ask
myself, why aren’t we being prepared for the real world rather than what will
only be four years of our lives?
It is quite often that subjects are not taught in
school in a way that is meant for you to retain them, but for you to pass
the class every week. This is mainly because students are not being taught
information that needs to be known to advance you in life, such as how to do
your taxes or pay your bills. This pointless information is being shoved down
students’ throats for the sake of “sticking to the curriculum”, yet have nothing
to do with any of the goals the student handbook lays out or any everyday life situations. If schools worked to
developing young adults that can be successful in any setting, not just
college, the country would have a brighter future for generations to come.
Hey Meaghan!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really strong post. Your topic is definitely one relevant to students and I understand your point. Our society has prioritized getting good grades over learning for the sake of learning, and this often leaves students without the knowledge we will need in the future.
Using the MHS handbook to illustrate what we should be learning versus what we are learning was a smart choice. It gave me a source with which I was familiar and it served as a good point of reference. I have never really thought about the goals MHS has for its students, and the way you incorporated them made me realize that I haven’t accomplished some of these goals.
Stylistically, your writing is good. I liked your introduction; it made me want to keep reading. Your writing is relatable and professional. There are, however, a few things wrong technically. For example, the sentence “as soon as you enter your freshmen year, a student’s life revolves around college and what they choose to do after high school,” should say your life rather than a student’s life to keep the subject of the sentence the same. There are a couple minor things like that which could be fixed easily. Overall, really nice job!
Meaghan, I don't know that I agree with Audrey's enthusiasm about this post. I struggle with it. I am open - I think - to criticism of the high school, and especially the lives that adolescents are forced to live these days. You and your peers deal with a pressure that my high school classmates didn't have to deal with, and that was less than 20 years ago.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, as an argument, this post needs work. You offer no evidence to support your claims. You do give the long quote from the handbook, which comprises 25% of the post, but this quote does nothing but establish the school's expectations. The quote from the handbook does not prove that the school fails to meet standards. It does not prove any of the claims you make about teachers excessively following a curriculum. The explicit intent for AP classes is to give students a college level experience. If you have issues with this, why did you take AP classes? Is the issue really the school itself and the teachers, or is it that you feel overwhelmed by societal expectations that sanctify college and thus force you to take classes you don't really want to take? You don't address any of this; instead you make facile accusations with no supporting evidence. And, ironically, you do so in a forum meant to reinforce the first and second learning objectives in the handbook that you cite as evidence of objectives not met.
Your thesis is a good one, but the way you present it is weird.