Do you know how to write a check? No, you don’t, do you? That’s ok, do you know how to do the Pythagorean theorem, or what about the mitochondria, the power house of the cell, is? I bet you do.
What real-world skills do these schools actually teach us? We don’t know how to defend ourselves, how to write a resume, or know ALL of our rights. We are taught about the Holocaust, but only the one in WWII; what about the Bolshevik Revolution? Why isn’t the math class taught by someone who went to school to be a mathematician? Why isn’t the English teacher someone who has published at least one book (and it doesn’t even have to be a good one)? This is not to say that you can’t be qualified to teach without those degrees, because you can be good at math and not be a mathematician.
I believe if TUSD actually made the classes of the schools under their jurisdiction more interactive and entertaining, they would not need a fence to keep their students in, and they would also have higher enrollment and attendance rates. They could also introduce entry-level elective classes for topics like philosophy, more languages like German, Russian, or Latin, or a specific class dedicated to Roman history.
I also believe that if they were to put more funding toward the core classes, we would also be a higher-grade school and have higher testing scores, with a current score of 22% proficient in math and 29% in English, and an average SAT score of 1220 and ACT score of 25, which is good. If we didn’t force a bunch of kids and sit them down in uncomfortable chairs and force them to have their eyes glued to a paper and their hands chained to a pencil, I think we would have way better math and reading scores.
With that being said, I do think that Math, English, History, and Science are all very important things to know, but there is a huge difference between knowing and understanding. How does the TUSD district check the understanding of its students? With standardized tests on everything taught from the beginning to the end of the year, from 3rd grade through graduation. I think they’re going about it all wrong. I think that once a week, they could go over what they have learned that week as a mid-way review, possibly done on Wednesdays, since it is a short day, to reinforce the subject material in the brain. What do I know, I’m just an underdeveloped student who has no idea what he’s talking about.
To reinforce my point, I have gathered quotes from students alike on the good and the bad.
“All school does is prepare you for a 30-year-old drunken trivia night.” -Kalab Sullivan, high school sophomore.
“Although school unprepares you for some practical, everyday exercises and tasks, it also equips you with historical, mathematical, logistical, social, and linguistic expertise for you to take into the real world.” -Clark J-White, High School Sophomore.
These are some problems I have and how I think they can be fixed. From my pov these seem easy to fix, but from a district wide veiw, it may be a lot of “unnecessary” paperwork. I feel like these would be great changes and could drastically change the major school system for the better.
