Sometimes it amazes me, the whole debate over what to do about the education crisis. From the debate over rating systems in New York (where I live) to the wider, nationwide debate over how many and how well paid our teachers our. to the "debate" over whether to even have teachers to indoctrinate the masses with - until he brought this up, I thought the worst thing about Santo was his Google results - no one ever asks young people (you know, the abstract children politicians bring up in speeches) what they think about how they are being educated. Well, they may not ask, but I'm certainly going to give my answer.
Full disclosure: I am a male freshman at Stuyvesant High School (in other words, lucky) with a college statistics teacher for a parent. I am perhaps the only person in the world to get a Kos account before a facebook account.
Problem #1: tests.
I find it ridiculous that 60% of my grades are based on tests. I know, it's a good idea to have tests, as a way to measure student progress, but the problem is that they don't just measure student progress. Let's say that I stayed up late doing a biology lab. The next day, I have a Music test, and get a 70 thanks to sleep deprivation (we have a word for someone who gets good sleep here at Stuy: lucky). The test didn't measure my subject knowledge, it also measured whether I had a huge project due today. Sometimes it gets worse than that, though. I have some relatives and close friends who have ADD. In a nutshell: either you concentrate too much or not enough. I know extra time is given on major tests, but the problem is that extra time is not given for ordinary tests. So you're not testing comprehension, you're testing which chromosomes the student picked up from their parents.
Problem #2: race.
There are about 3200 students at Stuyvesant, which is a fairly prestigious school (if I do say so myself). About 40 are black. There was a NY times article on this, in fact (I have a subscription). Who says we've integrated our schools? Perhaps by law we have, but de facto segregation still exists. Here's an interesting tidbit: it's mostly southern states that are checked for racist laws, but NY is also one of those states. Our diversity (or lack thereof) is a testament to that.
Problem #3: sex education.
Here's the issue where there's the most clear divide between the two parties. Nobody wants teen sex (except teenagers), but liberals more follow the "don't-but-if-you-do" philosophy than the conservative "DON'T" philosophy. The latter, of course, does not work. However immoral social conservatives think sex is, about half of high school seniors have had sex. It's a far better idea to let teenagers know what they're doing than to assume we'll listen when adults say no.
Problem #4: bullying.
This is the one that really gets to me. First, I spend a good six years of my life getting harassed by... no names... a jerk. The way out was for me to change schools, not for the school to actually do something.
Then I hear about a state law that says it's okay to bully based on a "moral conviction." Like, oh, say, religion, or the lack thereof. Homosexuality was the main topic of law, but it also left open the door for persecution of minority faiths, and, as you might have guessed by now, I'm not exactly a christian.
Well, that was refreshing. Nothing like a mini-rant to shake off a bad sickness.