Hello everyone, I hope you’re having a lovely morning, afternoon, or evening! Back in my senior year of high school, I had an assignment to write a persuasive/synthesis essay. We could choose our own topic, and I chose standardization in the school system as that was a personal topic for me. I’ve had plans to post the essay on my blog for a while now, but this topic has come up in recent conversations for me, so I take that as even more of a sign to post! Enjoy!

psst… when it says “Source A,” Source B,” etc., I don’t actually have the bibliography part of it anymore, so… you may just have to look those statistics and info up yourself…

The institutional belief that all students must fit into a restrictive criterion has poisoned the modern-day schooling system. Standardized classes and the ideology that college is the only successful path leaves students pressured and judged by peers, teachers, parents, and society. Standardization can cause children to disengage and lose motivation during class and restrict them on what classes they can or cannot take. These systematized classes also fail to measure each students’ unique abilities accurately. The schooling system also pushes the college agenda so far that students feel pressure and judgment from others in numerous areas surrounding their future.

Standardization can be harmful to both left-brained and right-brained students in classes. The left-brained students who understand their classes feel that the students who do not understand are holding them back from progression. However, those students who do not understand the class disengage due to hopelessness and losing motivation because the schooling system sees them as dumb for not fitting their standard (Source A). Two sisters are intelligent but in different fields; one is very studious and excels in STEM classes, while the other is more creative and finds success in writing, acting, and music. They are both intelligent, but both feel bored by their lessons. The STEM-inclined sister is bored by her classes because her schoolmates do not understand the lesson; therefore, her class is stuck on the same material for weeks, boring her out of her mind. The art-inclined sister is disinterested in her classes because the school system beats her down and ridicules her for not understanding the standard classes; she loses motivation even to try. In the past, she did try, but it was still not enough for the system, so she gave up.

The ‘one-size-fits-all’ way that the schooling system has taken has limited the classes that those two sisters can receive (Source A). Those certain classes make the STEM-inclined sister feel smart and feel as though she is excelling. Teachers, parents, and others praise the sister—let’s call her Brooklyn—and reward her with valedictorian status, honors, and other valued school awards. Meanwhile, the art-inclined sister—Charlotte—is told that she is not trying hard enough or not reaching her full potential, resulting in her feeling dampened by these restrictive classes. The one-size-fits-all system does not offer many classes that will allow Charlotte to display her intelligence properly. Teachers will see her as a disappointment or a lazy student compared to her sister.

Not only can the wiring of one’s brain play into passed tests, but so can many variables in students’ everyday lives. A teacher cannot have a standardized test taken on Wednesday and only Wednesday to all the students if one just lost a family member on Tuesday. A teacher cannot expect every student to excel at the SATs if students received poor sleep the night before or did not eat enough before school. There are so many factors other than intelligence that can come into play when taking a standardized test, and the school system must realize that.

How can one fix all these problems? You may ask. Well, for starters, teachers and staff must become more aware of students’ lifestyles outside of school and how that can negatively affect a student’s performance. Now, the teachers should never creep into a child’s social life or watch their every move, but merely make the teachers more aware of any family issues or bad habits that can cause strife in their academic career. Concerning standardized testing, many would say to get rid of it once and for all. According to National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen Garcia, “We must reduce the emphasis on standardized tests that have corrupted the quality of the education children receive. The pressure placed on students and educators is enormous.” Students feel immense pressure to perform as adequately as everyone else and fit these restrictive criteria that the school system has created unfairly.

On the topic of pressure, the unnecessary push of the college agenda has also corrupted the schooling system. Students are pressured continuously, on purpose or accident, that college is the only successful path. What many people fail to realize, however, is that that point is a myth. One can be successful without college. Also, there is the never-ending talk of student loans and debt building up. Not many students are lucky enough that their parents can pay for college, what about those kids with larger families or lower income? They will be stacked in debt.

College questions have become routine to high school seniors. ‘What colleges have you applied for?’ ‘What are your college plans?’ or ‘What are you doing next?’ They all have one thing in common: ‘We expect you to go to college.’ What if that student does not want to go to college? What if that student is deciding not to spend thousands on a degree that they might never use? Well, as soon as that student replies, ‘Oh, I’m not going to college,’ or ‘I’m actually planning on…’ Whatever the exact words are, one can slowly see a hint of disappointment and disapproval creep its way onto the face of the teacher, staff member, parent, or even your Average Joe. Those educators do not believe in the student. They do not believe that the student will do well enough without college. Funnily enough, a teacher’s job is to prepare. Prepare students for life outside of high school. Prepare students for what life brings in the future, in the ‘real world.’ By showing their unbelief in the student’s choice, the teachers prove that they have not taught the student well enough to succeed.

Believe it or not, college is not vital. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, started at Harvard, the paragon of colleges. He left. He dropped out of college to pursue something for which he was passionate (Source B). Mark Zuckerberg now holds a net worth of $97 billion (Forbes). One of Microsoft’s founders, Bill Gates, also began at Harvard and dropped out later to pursue his passion (Source C). Bill Gates has a hefty net worth of $121.6 billion (Forbes). These examples show that students do not have to go to college to be successful. Especially with modern-day classes and opportunities, students can graduate high school and simply take online classes to excel in their passion or talent without spending hundreds of thousands on a college degree.

Hundreds of thousands. Duquesne University: $56,680 for a year. Point Park University: $47,670 a year. Slippery Rock University: $24,981. All information found at collegesimply.com. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual income in America is around $35,000. Notice how two of those previous colleges mentioned cost at least $10,000 more than that. College is no easy step. Many colleges cost more than a year’s pay, making it difficult for families to save up for their child to attend college. Even if that child borrows loans and eventually racks up debt, it will take them many painful years to pay off their college bills.

The schooling system must stop their tireless efforts to shove students into a mold of uniformity that destroys their unique talents and buries them in piles of debt. The system cannot allow students to continue to disengage from institutional, lackluster classes. The system cannot continue beating down children who do not fit into their mold of perfect, STEM-inclined students. The system cannot shove the experience of college down the throats of those who try to pave their way through this harsh society. The system cannot continue the institutional belief that all students must fit into a restrictive criterion to prove successful.

There you go! I hope you found this post thought-provoking and/or intriguing. If you have any other thoughts on the matter, feel free to drop them in the comments below!
Do you think you’re more left-brained, right-brained, or a little of both?
What was your experience relating the schooling system?
I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day or night. Keep on loving others and seeking the Lord!