As a current college student that has attended both public and private colleges, as well as earned a high school diploma from a public school system, I feel as though I have had enough experience in the education system of America to comment on it's effectiveness.
Quite honestly, the current system of education is not effective at all. Now before I get started, I want to make one thing very clear. In no way do I feel that teachers are responsible for any of this. Teachers are incredible and selfless individuals with hearts of pure gold that dedicate their lives to helping others. Although I will admit that in my experience, some teachers are more effective than others, the issue is with the education system as a whole, not the educators.
Testing
When in your life will you ever be confined to a desk, without any resources or people to collaborate with, and be expected to recall arbitrary facts at the rate of less than a minute per question, and be expected to get more that 70 percent correct to be average, and above 95 percent correct to be exceptional? (and let's be honest, most of us strive for exceptional) I truly cannot think of one situation in which this would be the case.
The crazy thing is that this is exactly how our current system of schooling gages whether we, as students, have learned the material throughout the course of a semester.
Not only is the idea of testing in this manner unreasonable because it is unrealistic, it is ineffective because it measures the student's ability to memorize, not understand and apply their knowledge. For students that have high personal expectations and/or have trouble memorizing facts that are not significant to themselves, this creates high levels of anxiety and stress, both of which are unnecessary.
So what? You can't memorize all of the elements of the periodic table and their corresponding atomic mass. Does this mean you are an unintelligent person? Absolutely not! Realistically in life if you ever need to know the atomic mass of carbon, you can look it up. Furthermore, if you can memorize all of the elements and their masses and the number of protons in their nucleus, does this mean your smart? Not necessarily, I know plenty of peers that are incredible test takers yet lack intelligence.
Simply put, testing does not mimic real life scenarios and doesn't accurately gage an individuals intelligence or knowledge. Beyond the fact that testing is pointless (in my opinion), unless you want to know how well someone can memorize, it takes up valuable time that could be spent learning.
According to a report by the Washington Post on July 25, 2013, "The grade-by-grade analysis of time and money invested in standardized testing found that test prep and testing absorbed 19 full school days in one district and a month and a half in the other in heavily tested grades."
An entire month of each year spent on standardized testing. Assuming that standardized testing begins in third grade, this means that as a high school graduate I have spent about nine months of my life completing standardized tests. What boggles my mind is that this is just standardized testing I don't even want to know how much more of my time has been wasted with testing for my core classes.
Maybe at this point you're thinking, wow she is just upset with the school systems because she wasn't a good test taker and feels like this set her back in life. The opposite in fact is true. I was (am still am) the classic straight A student that scored high in all subjects. Quite honestly, because of testing, I feel like I have been set back. This brings me to my next issue with our school systems, the subjects taught.
School Subjects
Math, science, language, arts, and history. These are the four core subjects that are drilled into us from the time we can start to tie our own shoes. Subjects like music, art, culture, physical education, nutrition, mental health, self defense, finance, foreign language, and many others are dismissed entirely or if lucky, given an hour a week.
As someone that is nearing the end of my time in the education system of the United States, I don't feel at all ready to start my own life. If all I needed to know was how to derive an equation and identify the antagonist in a story, I would feel more than prepared. However the reality is, soon I am going to be fully responsible for all of my own finances, be responsible for my own health physically and mentally, be able to work effectively with others, and so much more I cannot even write it all. Have these past 14+ years in school prepared me for this? Not enough.
I am so fortunate to have incredible parents that are amazing mentors and are supportive as well as eager to help me get going in life, but many if not most students are not that lucky. They need this education in school, and if they don't get it, when will they ever learn how to be an adult?
Stagnant-ness (did I just make up a word? Maybe, but it works!)
Have you ever seen stagnant water? Well if not, it's gross. The lack of flow creates a thick, green-brown algae and bacteria filled pile that reeks of rot. How does this relate to school? As we sit in our desks all day to try and learn the material, our bodies and brains are doing the same thing that water does when it is stagnant.
An active body creates an active mind. Motion, running, jumping, falling, spinning, cartwheeling, any and all motion encourages creativity and wonder that are 100 percent necessary for learning.
As the United States falls behind other countries academically, time spent in recess seems to drop as well. The idea that more time should be spent in the class room to learn more could not be farther from the truth. According to the CDC, "…physical activity can have an impact on cognitive skills and attitudes and academic behavior, all of which are important components of improved academic performance. These include enhanced concentration and attention as well as improved classroom behavior."
How? Physical exertion increases the flow of oxygen to the brain. This helps the brain creates more neurotransmitters and form better neural connections. Both are associated with better learning and memory, as well as higher thinking.
In elementary school there are a few short recesses which allow children to run and play for a small portion of their day. The time allotted for recess is not enough, but at least there is some. Then once we get into middle and upper levels of education, all recess time stops. Students are expected to sit and learn for upwards of eight hours straight. Not only is this ineffective from a learning standpoint, it is also teaching our bodies to be still which is creating epidemics of obesity and other health related diseases.
Although some students participate in after school activities and sports, not all students can afford these events, or are even interested in participating. Regardless of after school activity, students should be required to get moving because it is unnatural to be still for eight hours a day, unless you are sleeping.
What would I suggest?
The school system is in desperate need of a restructure. Yes, the core subjects are important, but equally or more important are life skills like nutrition, mental health, finance, etc. The core subjects should be evaluated for their most relevant topics that apply to real life situation and time learning them should be cut in half. The other half of time should be spent being active and learning life skills. This should start in first grade.
What? First graders should be learning life skills? Yes! Because some skills take a life time to learn, and then sooner they are taught, the more adept students will be to apply them in their own lives.
Testing should be done away with entirely, other than when assessing the ability of students to memorize facts. Instead of testing, students should be conducting research and analyzing studies and trends while collaborating with a group and their peers. Their findings should then be presented to their peers in the form of presentations. Why? Because this is how most professions function in some variation. The time that is saved from presenting and collaborating in groups instead of testing should then be spent doing more physical activity and learning.
I understand that changing all of this is incredibly lofty, however I am convinced that making these changes would help the United States catch up to other first world countries in terms of education.
One example of a school system that uses more recess to their advantage is Finland. According to The Atlantic, about every 45 minutes, students and teachers take a 15 minute break to socialize and play outside. This freedom from structure actually allowed them to be more focused while learning. Read the whole article here.
