Drafting Continued

Unlike Gatto, I think school is very well needed and it serves a great purpose even as it is right now. Without school education would be tough and dependent on the parents for their kids to learn. Sadly many kids wouldn't have that scholastic opportunity simply because their parents might not believe that education is necessary and kids should go straight into the workforce. The education system that we have this day and age teaches necessary skills and basic knowledge to prepare young adults for the real world. Without those general teachings throughout elementary school, middle school, and high school, student would not have the proper tools and knowledge to fully integrate with the real world and be a proper contributor to society. Math, Physical Education, Science, and Foreign Language are all terrific subjects to learn; however, the way we teach them and to the extent, I believe, is very unnecessary and we should be using those extra classes to be teaching kids how to do their taxes, pay their bills, manage credit, and other useful knowledge that helps integrate kids into the real world. 

I agree that these subjects are definitely important for anyone to learn. They can help with future business opportunities, simple problem-solving, everyday life, and similar things of that nature. The problem with our education system is that it spends too much time focusing on particular subjects that become too specific to use in everyday life. Kids should be learning basic math because it is used in all aspects of life. Adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing are things that we use everyday just to get by. Math could even go as far as learning intermediate problem solving. Developing problem solving skills creates intricate thinkers and our society could always use more of those. The problem with our education system is that we push this idea too far. We go beyond what is crucial to know to a point where there is no where to implement these new skill sets unless you end up in a career like engineering or statistics. That is what college is for, not high school. I believe that math could stop at simple algebra and there wouldn't be any problem whatsoever. 

Physical Education has to be, personally, one of my favorite subjects. Playing dodgeball, football, softball, kickball, soccer, basically any sport or physical activity was something that I have always enjoyed being a part of. I'm naturally athletic and I was raised in a sports crazed family, so these types of activities would always beat writing an essay or taking a two hour chemistry test. The problem is that not everyone has that drive to be active or might be embarrassed that he or she cannot throw, kick, or catch a ball. Throughout my scholastic experience, these non-active kids always seemed to have the option to sit out if they didn't feel like being a part of a certain activity. As much as I enjoyed P.E., It definitely did not live up to its name. Physical education should be exactly that, a class that teaches people how to become physical and what it takes to get and stay in shape, not some glorified recess for young adults. Obesity and heart disease is rampant in our country. The sad thing about that problem is we can easily fight back just by learning how to take care of our bodies and there is no better place to learn than our own education system.

Science is extremely complex and interesting that it makes us so intrigued that we crave to learn more. Science is simply amazing. Our education systems give us the options to learn about the stars, why certain chemicals react, how gravity works, theories of our universe, and many other incredibly interesting subjects along the same lines. What doesn't make sense is why so many science credits are required. Those are all very specific topics and would be great to know if someone were to become an astronomer, physicist, chemist, biologist, or any type of scientist for that matter. Basic lessons in biology and/or physics I think should be all that is required. We could learn about our bodies and how they work in biology and physics can give us a brief example of how things work around us. That is really all we need to know for the time we are in high school. Anything more is just bonus knowledge.

The way we require a foreign language in high school is just plain wrong. We spend two years of our lives learning a language that we soon forget a few years after high school. In fact, we shouldn't even have the two year requirement at all. It is a waste of our time especially when we could be learning other valuable skills. Foreign language is something that should either be required from the time we first start school all the way to the end (like many European and Asian countries do), or not at all. Taking two years of spanish did absolutely nothing for me sadly and I wish I didn't have to spend my time completing arbitrary assignments for no reason when I could have been learning something that could have applied to my life after high school. I personally believe that learning foreign languages makes people less ignorant about the world around them and break communication barriers with entire countries. There are so many possibilities that come from learning a second language, especially in the business world. I hope to one day learn another language that can easily be applied to my life but as of right now, we need to either completely take away the requirements or implement them at a much earlier time in our education.