Dear Board of Education,
Please let me first start by saying thank you for the effort put in. I realize you're trying your best by putting standards up for the future leaders of the world. However, I have a few concerns as we move into a new generation of future world changers.
My first concern would be that the "common core" requirements of students are absolutely ridiculous. You're trying to put every student in the same box of what they can learn. This is not how I want my future kids to grow up learning because they will never be an individual. They will be another byproduct of what you think is best. And if you listen to teachers and students, you'd see two different stories.
My second concern is that standardized tests are stupid. This proves nothing about a person's intelligence. Everyone is different! All it's proving is that you can finish a test that is strictly timed and maybe get a few correct answers along the way. I hate that this is how colleges ultimately determine a student's intelligence because I could be an anxious test taker and not do well and also be a straight-A student.
My third concern is that if you actually want students to be a world changer or a future leader, you have got to encourage their differences. How is a student supposed to change the world if their teachers won't let them be different? Encourage them that it's ok to solve a problem a different way because they came to the same answer. I mean if the fathers of America never saw a different point of view from the English government, we would all still be in England to this day without our American freedom of speech, etc. Encourage them that it's okay to have a different opinion from each other. Everyone does not need to be the same.
My fourth concern is how classrooms are set up. Literally, every student looks at the board and sits at their desk quietly until class is over. Please, encourage teachers to let students move the desks around instead of in straight lines. Let them look at each other during class because it encourages them to talk to one another and see each other's point of view. This is how the real world is.
My final concern is exams. Exam week is the worst week of every student's life. It's dreadful because the biggest portion of your grade is riding on this one test. Which doesn't prove a thing (in my opinion) about if you've really learned the material. Let them do a project, or somehow apply it to their own lives because that's the whole point of learning these things is so you can apply it to your daily life. A multiple choice test that has trick questions is the dumbest way to see if a person can apply it to their life. It just tests their memorization skills (which proves nothing).
Please hear me out because this a change that really needs to happen if you want individuals running our world instead of an army of robots.
Sincerely,
A very concerned college student and future parent