Being the daughter of both an educator and a US Army soldier, I’ve become very familiar with the talk of education and the government. My best friend (who plans on being a teacher) and I were having a conversation about our education system, or lack of as some may say, and the astounding differences that it has compared to the education systems around the world.

Both of us grew up as military brats so we’ve had our fair share of school curriculums to experience the difference of both overseas and national education systems. She was telling me about this quiz she and her sister decided to take asking if people believed they were “smarter than a Chinese six-year-old.” It was only two questions, but the answers to those two questions are what made them deserving of the title "quiz.” See, the basic education system teaches you to focus on problem solving and patterns, but what happens when you enter the real world and Johnny’s trip to the grocery store, or “one of these things is not like the other” doesn’t help?

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am in no way saying that these education practices are not important, but are they more important than learning about how to deal with the economy as a college student, how to pay taxes, or what a house mortgage is? The quiz my best friend took went outside the barriers of basic patterns and problem solving and focused on something even more vital to have when entering the world: common sense. I remember back in middle school, our curriculum introduced the five-word acronym that made every student cringe, UPSEA. We even had a little jingle for it to memorize what it stood for: understand, plan, solve, evaluate, apply. Although I couldn’t stand the thought of having to go into deep detail with every word problem we were presented with by using the break-down rubric of UPSEA we were given, as I got older, I appreciated it (crazy,right?!). It allowed me to learn how to analyze situations before just jumping into giving the answer. It was the equivalent of your teacher marking a problem wrong because you “didn’t show your work.” It gave me the true answer to questions that asked “why” instead of the “because-that’s-how-it-works” answer everyone wanted to give.

So why did learning aids like these stop? Now our education system is coming up with “new math” and only focusing on teaching the material covered on the STARR, TAKS, Terror Terra Nova, and/or any other form of standardized testing there is. What about the lessons that’ll be stuck in our minds helping us as we get our first real jobs? And no, I don’t mean the formula of finding the circumference of something, or the list of numbers that pi equals. What about teaching in different ways that help kids of all different learning types? I use to struggle so hard in classes that were oral or book work only because I am a kinesthetic and visual learner; I have to be able to see how things apply to my life in order to fully understand how they work and I'm sure I’m not the only one. It’s these types of issues, and so many more, that need to be looked at and taken seriously if we want to improve our education system even slightly.

Countries all over the world have education systems that are preparing middle schoolers to walk out of 7th grade and right into college if they wanted to. Why can’t we do that? We should be investing everything we have into the minds of the younger generations because they are our future. We already have them obsessed with technology, why not teach them how to make it? As for the college generation, we need to take a stand for ourselves! Please, don’t limit your knowledge to that of what you are learning in one educational environment known as school. Learning exists everywhere through everything! Believe in your potential and don’t let society have the final say.

As for the generations who have come before us, we beg of you to believe in us. Encourage us to believe in ourselves. Speak the positive things over us, not the negative. See us for our capabilities, not our fashion, lingo, and trends. Help us help you, for we are the ones who will later be taking care of you just as you’ve been taking care of us. Education is such a vital part of life, don’t let it be another dying movement; make it a wanted obligation for yourself and for others today.