Growing up in the public school system in the United States I was immediately aware that the curriculum was not all that it is cracked up to be. There were students who complained about learning something that they were not even invested in, then there were students, like myself, who were completely invested in reading the history textbook from cover to cover for fun because it was something that we were deeply interested in. However, the school curriculum whether it be public or private is deeply flawed. Why?
First, why am I stating that the school curriculum is flawed? If we look at exactly what the students are currently learning, we can tell that they are being forced to learn something that shouldn't be concerned with at certain grade levels. In reality, the school curriculum was created as a "fit all", and reality this is horrible idea to do. Every student is at different reading levels, and are interested in all sorts of different things. One student might excel in science, whereas another student excels in language. To believe that every student is going to stay in sync while going through the curriculum that is placed before them is unrealistic and should be changed.
The fact that the school system seems to think that all students will be able to retain information and learn it the same way, which is highly incorrect. Just like everything else in life, everyone is going to learn things completely differently. Some will be able to sit during an entire lecture and have someone talk to them for 45 minutes. Whereas there will be some students who will do a lot better either hands on, or even via the computer. Every student needs to have a curriculum that will suit them and their learning capabilities. Alternative schools have taken the initiative to create a curriculum that is customized for each student, this should be brought into both public and private schools.
One of the major things that the curriculum has tossed out the window are the life courses. Students need to be learning how to do taxes, change a tire (most parents are actually teaching their kids this), cooking, how to fill out a ballot, budgeting, etc. Luckily at my high school during my senior year we had a course called, Senior Seminar. We learned a lot about finance, faxing (clerical), and other valuable life experiences that we needed to be prepared for.
Yes, there are many parts of this that the parents need to get involved in, however, these courses actually used to be taught in school, and it helped them be more prepared for the realities of life. However, now many new graduates are lost and unsure of how to do certain things. Adding this course back into the curriculum it can help the students be more prepared for life after school.