Much as there were flower children and children of the millennium, I am a product of the automatic promotion system, a "Promotion Child." It is a system where, so long as you know how to play the edges of the game, your education comes without the psychological burden of caring at all. So long as you do the absolute minimum, you will be passed from kindergarten through twelfth grade, and graduate just like everyone else. It is left up to the individual student whether he or she will slide by or excel.
No one cares.
The state of education is simply awful, and half- hearted attempts at saving it are only deepening the issue. In order to build an education system that works, we need better qualified teachers, educators who actually care, a more enthusiastic approach to education, and a classroom willing to put forth the effort. If we can start assembling these things, we will begin to see great change in the system.
It is time to let the old boundaries - freshman, sophomore, junior and senior, division by grade and course level - fall. With this out of the way, a student may take a course when he or she is ready, as opposed to when the class structure thinks they should be ready. Enthusiasm for learning fades quickly when you realize you cannot do something you are genuinely excited about because, hey, you have to wait until you can park in the senior lot to take that class.
In this idea is also born another - entrance exams, simple logic and skill tests - for harder- level courses, or for students of a lower grade level wanting to get into higher level courses. The extra work this puts into getting into the class of your choice separates those who truly want to from the rest of the pack. It also brings education back to its roots as merit- based education, and not simply fill-in-the- blank, assembly-line learning.
The basic `core' classes - three years of math, four of English, three of science and four of social studies - would remain unchanged, but the addition of at least two years of government courses or two years of a foreign language would be tacked on to better prepare students for college and the real world ahead of them. It would also not hear to bring the math courses - long the dread of students - to reality; allow an Algebra II or Calculus course as an elective course, but make sure every student can balance a checkbook or fill out a tax form - Taxes 101.
I also propose a national block schedule. Four courses a day, spanning ninety minutes each, beginning at 8:00 AM instead of the traditional 7:00 AM, and concluding at 4 PM. This would allow for an hour of lunch instead of the rushed 30 minutes students get now, as well as longer passing and restroom periods, with less of a hurry to get to class. Students are proven more attentive when classes start later, and 8:00 isn't really going to turn the youth of America into delinquents. On the contrary, it may work for the common good.
Our nation's public school graduates are ill- prepared for college and other higher learning because they are not made to work. They are told that the minimum is acceptable, and that it is not their fault if they slack off.
This new structure is ominous only because many were and are used to the social hours currently known as high school. The problem of our youth being undereducated will not be solved in a day, but this is an important first step.