On Education
By: David Hebron

School is one of the most important things in our lives. In the first years of life, we are brought up to par with the rest of the world. Currently, we have a 12 year system based on the standardized tests. How did we get to this point? And is this bad or good? How can we change the world of education today? I believe that things need to be changed for our youth. There is so much that isn’t being taught in today’s schools. Yet nothing is being done. I have a dream to one day start my own school. If I were to run a school, it would be so different, people wont call it high school, they would call it pre-college.
We all agree that education is one of the most important things in most of our lives. We are human beings and we pride our selves from other mammals by our ability to comprehend, to construct and to create. If we did not have education, would we be able to really call ourselves human? With the growing society today, it is important that we know what is going on in life. The world is getting smaller almost by the minute and to provide our children with the knowledge to cope with the growing world society their education needs to be top notch. Society is basically built for the younger generations. Over 25% of our lives are dedicated to the learning of knowledge. We even have laws, forcing minors to attend school. Without a healthy educational system, all other systems would fail.
Currently, or schools are based on standardized tests. Originally the idea was a bit different. In other words, the concept of basing an education on a standardized test has developed over a period of time. The original concept of school is over 100 years old. Instead of changing the system, we just added on and modified what was there. Like an old car, there is only so much you can do to keep it lasting, even if you replace every part, you still won’t get the power of the newest model.
Testing is important to demonstrate understanding of a specified area. This is understood and is a useful tool for understanding an individual. The issue with standardized testing is that it literally transforms ones knowledge into a number based interpretation for better handling. I am aware of the conveniences of this transformation, but so much is lost from the original idea of understanding ones capacity. Standardized testing should be in place, but it should not be focused on with the magnitude in which it is. The focus should be more on how an individual handles situations or how well someone understands what is being taught and why.
How did it get this way? Heavy pressure from parents and politicians demands that our schools show promising results. In order to regulate the progress of an individual, they must be assessed and compared to something. This usually turns out to be their peers. It is thought that if a student does well on this test than the teacher must have done well. So, the better a student dose on a standardized test, the more money a teacher used to get. It also implies that intelligence con be dictated by a number score on one of these tests. In the interest of better scores, these tests were made easier and easer to allow more and more students to pass. From there you have an assembly line way of education.
It is a dream of mine to one day start a school where learning is the focus. It will be a school where students do their own thing and learn their own way in accordance to their own goals and dreams. Instead of being a window to the world, my school will be of the world, a cornucopia of knowledge, expressing opinions of the life happening all around. I do not think that a school should be its own community. It should be of the community, contributing all that it can to the world. After all, it is the community itself that pays for the school. In this school, the creative will not be limited by my numerical tests or by the run on days of the same thing after the same thing. One day colleges will accept students of this school just because they went to my school.
The first thing different about my school will be the building. I am not quite sure how some things will work but I do know some of the concepts I want to put into its shape. Some how I would like to change the layout of the school every year. Every year the juniors would redesign the school to what they see as fit. Everything from getting new furniture (or just making new furniture), to redesigning the floor plan of the school in order to reform and relocate the classrooms. Again, I don’t know how, but I will have walls that I can move from year to year. Of course, the building will have some things that cannot be moved like the theatre or the wood shop, but my hope is to have a floor plan based on efficiency.
The biggest issue is how to assess students and their performance? If I don’t want to rely on test or a GPA, how than, can I show the performance levels of a student? Well, for the answer to this question I looked at the rest of the world, every where form art schools, to getting a job. Time spent at the school would be spent building a portfolio of classes. We are known for our colleges in the US, so why not make our high schools like this? The classes won’t be built off of any block timing but just time periods in a day. Some classes would last for seven months with an hour a day, and some lasting 1 month, once a week, for three hours. The beginning of freshman year would be dedicated to constructing a plan that is right for you. You would sign up for classes, maybe join or start a couple of clubs, then organize a schedule for yourself. You can take as many or as few classes as desired, but this would all reflect on your portfolio. The portfolio is a handwritten report on each class or club and your contribution to this class or club. Some grades will be taken and they will be mentioned in these reports. The portfolios will be entirely on the computer, sorted by the date. At the end of your high school career you would have a portfolio with 4 folders, first year, second year, third year, and forth year. Additions to the portfolio would be determined by the individual. In the individual class assessment, the instructor would have a general layout of what was covered and a few copies of your work as well as test scores. So when a student wanted to apply for a college, the college can find out anything they wanted about that individual. Not only a GPA, but years of work would be shown. Attendance would be taken but there would be no “attendance policy”. The number of hours in class would just show in your portfolio, and x/y hours attended this class. It seems meaningless and disruptive to have students in class who don’t even want to be there. So instead of punishing student, you simply remove them from class.
This school would not only be a school, but also a community center as well. The theater would have shows and the youth programs would be best in the nation. Why? Because even though they are inspired by instructors, they are created and run by the students of the school. And while some students are in class others are entertaining the little people and playing games and teaching the youth themselves. The little people who attend these programs will feel as if they themselves are at the high school and old enough to hang out with people twice their grade. The little people of the world look up to high schoolers more than we think. And this would give them a good set of role models to look up to. Some programs would be daycare related and others would be neighborhood game related. Other “clubs” would include a painting club, a building club, a games club, and my personal favorite, a stick fighting and air soft club (because after all boys will be boys). In addition, other classes for adults would be available, like for instance a martial arts class or drivers education. The school itself will never be unused and the amount of knowledge is limitless.
Some of the class’s offered to the students attending this school would be heavy on the arts as well as art theory and philosophical classes. One class that could be offered due to the portfolio style of learning would be something like a conversation class. Some of class time would be spent just talking to one another, the other part of class would be studying how and why do things happen. This class would last about one week and then it would have an evaluation and a conclusion. One portion of classes that would be emphasized would be theatre. The school would have a weekly show done by the students in the Monday night TV fashion. Students participating in that would help write, direct, build set, run lights, and most of all acting. The show would be only half an hour every Friday or so, but the experience gained by the students would be more than any high school show could offer. Other classes would involve PE or PT things like just walking, or revisiting the concept of playing on the playground. The wood shop would be combined with the scene shop of the theatre department.
One of the reasons all the great things are possible is the kind and quality of the students. There are two very different kinds of high quality students: There is the high achieving child who knows the answers, is interested, pays attention, works hard, answers questions, enjoys same-age peers, memorizes things well, learns easy, listens well, and is self satisfied. Then there is the gifted child. This is the child who asks the questions, is extremely curious, gets involved mentally and physically, plays around in class and can still achieve high scores, questions the answers, prefers adults or older children, is good at guessing, knows most answers before thy’re asked, gets bored in class, shows strong feelings and opinions, and is highly critical of self (perfectionist). These two different types of learners see the world in completely different views, the latter being more rare than the prior. The educational system caters to the person who can memorize facts, versus the individual who asks too many questions, or has too many personal opinions. The selection process would inform teachers in elementary school of this different type of learner. They would then recommend students who comply with this different learning style. Those students would be hand picked and sent to the school once a week to start developing certain attributes they posses. These students aren’t just smart; they just think different. They actually find normal school difficult because of its teaching methods. That leadership personality would make this school function.
It is too late for me to graduate from this kind of school but it is not for future generations. Sooner or later our system of education has to change to keep up with the times. We in America have the least effective high school system in the world. But we have the best colleges available. Well, let’s take that attitude that makes this country so great and have different schools that compete. Let’s make education important to us. After all over one fourth of our lives are dedicated to receiving an education. I personally would like to have something to show for that.