Volume LXXXVI November 19, 2020 Issue II 510 13th St. Cullman, AL 35055
The Fall/Winter Edition 112 School Days Until Graduation!
Winter Playlist
What’s Wrong with Our Education System?
Bella Cottingham, Co-Editor
Bella Cottingham, Co-Editor
Hibernation Harmonies Issues with the American Education System 1. “Fantasy” -Alina Baraz 2. “instagram” -DEAN 3. “Everytime” -boy pablo 4. “Softly” -Clairo 5. “Born and Raised” -John Mayer 6. “Upside Down” -Jack Johnson 7. “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” -Iron & Wine 8. “Coffee” -BTS 9. “Sunday Morning” -Maroon 5 10. “Cherry Wine - Live” -Hozier 11. “I Guess I Just Feel Like” -John Mayer 12. “The Only Exception” -Paramore 13. “Cigarette Daydreams” -Cage the Elephant 14. “John Brown’s Body” -Gregory Alan Isakov 15. “My Cell” -The Lumineers
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Features: 1-5
When you google which country has the best education system, the U.S is usually at the top of the list. However, when you take a closer look, our education system is lacking in many aspects, and the main priority of many schools isn’t always what it should be- the students’ education. Although there are many areas in which the American Education System is insufficient, here are just a few that have caught my attention recently. To begin, something that has always bothered me is how much we are taught in schools that we can easily go to a computer and google. Moreover, how much time is spent teaching those things. I mean, I’ve practically been taught the same time frame in history for the past three years. That’s spending nearly 9 months per year on basically the same information, which by the way, can easily be found on the internet. Pretty much any math or science concept can be explained through a YouTube video. Even so, students are still being taught the same curriculum their parents and grandparents were. Our world is changing so fast and with that, new technology is being released daily. It’s 2020, and many teachers are still not allowing the use of calculators on some homework and tests; I think it’s time we take advantage of our society’s technological advances. In the real world, when are you ever going to be in a situation where you have to solve a math problem and don’t have your phone or a calculator? Many schools across the U.S aren’t thinking about what students will face once they graduate and are put in real-world situations. I know that withholding the use of calculators and teaching math we will probably never use after leaving high school is meant to help students
Sports: 6-7
with “problem solving”, but why don’t they just teach us real problem solving skills or perhaps logic and reasoning instead of showing us how to find the area of a trapezoid by hand? Another similar question is why students aren’t taught things we will actually need to know in life such as personal finance and relationships? I mean, yeah, I can solve a math problem using the quadratic formula or tell you all about the Revolutionary War, but when it comes to real world things like paying bills, I’ve got nothing. I’m not saying that history and math should be completely thrown out; they are important topics to be aware of, but they shouldn’t be the only things we learn in school. We spend approximately 4,320 hours at school during a school year (in Alabama; the rest of the country varies but is about the same.) That is A LOT of time for students to spend being educated, and to be honest, a lot of it is wasted. Young people in this country have so much potential but we are greatly hindered by how poorly we are educated. Another issue is prioritization of rank and state testing over actually teaching and ensuring that students fully understand the content. School basically consists of students learning something, taking a test, and repeating that process. I’ve had teachers who don’t even go over the tests (giving tests back to students and reviewing what was missed). I mean, if you don’t do that, was it even important if we grasped the information and understood it, or just that we memorized enough to make an A on the test? Another big issue related to this is the emphasis on standardized testing in the United States. This is arguably the most important issue pertaining to the education system. Most schools
Campus News: 8-10
in the U.S are judged based on student test scores, which isn’t an effective measure of success. The pressure schools have to produce high test scores easily leads to the teach-to-the-test approach and lack of focus on non-tested subjects such as art, music, and drama. To end on a less prominent issue, a more specific area our Education system is lacking is Foreign language. Why isn’t foreign language taught in Elementary school when it’s proven that the older you get, the more difficult it is to learn and speak a new language fluently? Studies have shown that the best age to learn a second language is 10 and that children under the age of 10 can more easily absorb information and remember it. So why are students in the U.S only offered (it’s not required) foreign language in high school? Learning and becoming proficient in any foreign language has an abundance of long-lasting cognitive benefits; it builds mental flexibility, superiority in concept formation, boosts brain power, improves memory, and also improves one’s native language. These are all things that would help prepare young people for college and for things they will face in the real world. It’s evident that significant changes need to be made concerning the American Education System. The way that young people today are educated and what they are taught is so important for the future success of the entire planet, and the way in which it is currently being presented just isn’t good enough.
Entertainment: 11-16