In my junior year of high school at Abington Heights, an assignment was given to us in English class: Write a declaration of independence from whatever you choose. So I decided to have some fun. (I did switch out the name of the school to be more fitting to my current endeavors). However, I may or may not have taken it a bit too seriously. You decide.
I. Throughout the course of one’s education, one is required to be assessed in various forms that range from an informal process of examining to a set of questions, problems, or the like, used as a means of evaluating the abilities, aptitude, skills or performance of an individual or group which in turn is given a letter, number or other symbol indicating the relative quality of one’s work in a given course, examination or special assignment. Though these assessments are considered by an authority as a basis of comparison and do not change, we have reached a critical position in the course of our affairs in which we must officially render ourselves separated from this flawed system.
II. We believe the process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgement, and the intellectual preparation for one’s mature life is crucial. Though the means by which this takes place is flawed. This system of education is jaded and in many cases hackneyed. The means by which this system elicits what an individual has acquired in knowledge and skill is repetitive and uniform. It is our prerogative to be sustained with an education that comprehensively includes all forms of learning whether it is perceptual, stimulus response, motor, relational, spatial, episodic or observational learning. Each and every individual learns in one of, or in a combination of the previously stated manners, techniques or modes of education. Our education system can and should be required to evaluate students and assess each one based on their own method or methods of learning.
III. Every assessment is based on a general structure for a given group of students and is monotonous.
IV. Because of this, the system in which the instructor provides a letter or number indicating the quality of an individual’s work is flawed due to the standards in which they are being assessed by. Those who learn differently and are assessed and evaluated based on a general criterion that is standard to all struggle.
V. At one point in a student's educational career, certain courses are extraneous to what they schematize for the time that is to come hereafter in higher education.
VI. Due to this, many students do not meet the expectations set before them in this decaying education system and receive a below average evaluation due to their inability to comply with the standardized criteria of said system.
VII. We are bombarded with work assigned to be done outside the classroom, for the instructors assign work as though each student only attends said instructor’s class or as though we have no social interaction outside of the facility.
VIII. We’ve tried to arrange for a settlement of terms regarding the mode in which we are given instruction and assessed.
IX. We've tried to follow through with this system, struggling to keep an above average evaluation, excelling and meeting the requirements of the given criteria.
X. We, therefore, the students of The University of Scranton, Pennsylvania, of The Unites States America, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Authority of the universe for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the students of this establishment, solemnly publish and declare, that these Royals, ought to be free and independent from this education system. For if one tries to teach a fish and a monkey to climb a tree, the monkey will succeed, though the fish will spend its entire life believing it is unintelligent. In the same way, we have many fishes and monkeys, as well as a variety of other animals, and for this Board of Education to teach us all to climb a tree is foolish. Though a monkey and a tiger can climb a tree, the means by which they do so are different. In the same way, some students can learn to perform the same skills in different methods, provided they are given the opportunity to do so. We, hereby with a firm reliance on the protection and support of Divine Providence, pledge to a new education system, our grades, our opportunities, our hopes, our future and our legacy.
Upon its completion, I provided a copy to my American Perspectives teacher who then gave it to the assistant principal who then called me to his office to chat. He found it interesting and questioned why I chose to write about it. I told him it was something everyone complained about: the homework, the bombardment of quizzes and tests, the endless projects. He then showed me this massive book, the guidelines for teachers and the criteria for ensuring that we received the best education, and I know we did. He went over it with me and I think we both learned something new that day. I appreciated that talk. As for my American Perspectives teacher, he hated me for the rest of the year.
P.S. If you ever get sick of school work, show this to your teacher. Just be careful, you might get sent to the office.
