High School: Out With the Old and In With the New
Robert Sorensen
Professor Edmunds
English 1A MW 4pm
Writing Assignment 1
High School: Out With the Old and In With the New When most people think about high school, they think about fun times with no responsibility. Rarely does someone look back and think that it played a key role in preparing them for college and the rigors of the real world. There is an epidemic failure to properly prepare high school students because of the current system in which they are enrolled. Teachers are failing to teach, Parents are failing to motivate, and students are taking no responsibility or accountability for their own actions. Too loose freedom, too much emphasis on personality development, and its side effects are often the loss of moral restraint. The educational foundation of our society has been eroded to the point of endangering the future of our country and its inhabitants. High school, in the form that it is in today, should be discarded and we should initiate a new and improved structure. To start with, one of the main issues in the high school system is social segregation and classes amongst the students. What I mean by this is that parents, teachers, and other students often times are partial to the “popular” students because of their athletic skill or charismatic behavior. These are not bad things to have, but does it mean they deserve special treatment? No, in fact, it should be the students that perform in the classroom that should receive such recognition. When we turn these athletes into heroes, we cripple them. They will go through life thinking that they are better than certain people and they will have not learned the value of hard work upon graduating. High school needs to be more about educating students rather than drooling over athletes with poor academic performances that we excuse because of their raging hormones. In the book, “Bleachers”, Neely Crenshaw is a high school quarterback and a king amongst his peers. From a very young
Professor Edmunds
English 1A MW 4pm
Writing Assignment 1
High School: Out With the Old and In With the New When most people think about high school, they think about fun times with no responsibility. Rarely does someone look back and think that it played a key role in preparing them for college and the rigors of the real world. There is an epidemic failure to properly prepare high school students because of the current system in which they are enrolled. Teachers are failing to teach, Parents are failing to motivate, and students are taking no responsibility or accountability for their own actions. Too loose freedom, too much emphasis on personality development, and its side effects are often the loss of moral restraint. The educational foundation of our society has been eroded to the point of endangering the future of our country and its inhabitants. High school, in the form that it is in today, should be discarded and we should initiate a new and improved structure. To start with, one of the main issues in the high school system is social segregation and classes amongst the students. What I mean by this is that parents, teachers, and other students often times are partial to the “popular” students because of their athletic skill or charismatic behavior. These are not bad things to have, but does it mean they deserve special treatment? No, in fact, it should be the students that perform in the classroom that should receive such recognition. When we turn these athletes into heroes, we cripple them. They will go through life thinking that they are better than certain people and they will have not learned the value of hard work upon graduating. High school needs to be more about educating students rather than drooling over athletes with poor academic performances that we excuse because of their raging hormones. In the book, “Bleachers”, Neely Crenshaw is a high school quarterback and a king amongst his peers. From a very young
Cited: ACT Reading Between the Lines: What the ACT Reveals About College Readiness In Reading. Iowa City, IA, 2006 (A1) Boyer, Ashley. “Problems Facing American Education” Volume 2, Number 1 2008. <http://www.nationalforum.com/Electronic%20Journal%20Volumes/Boyer,%20Ashley%20Problems%20Facing%20American%20Education.pdf> Kennedy, John F. “35th President of the United States.” <http://en.proverbia.net/citastema.asp?tematica=377> 2009. (C3) Michigan Department of Education What Research Says About Parent Involvement in Children’s Education. MI, March 2002.