Dear Education System,
I quit! Your endless tests, competition, stress, and grades mean nothing to me now. You grab us and wrap us an infinite number of rules from the minute we start thinking. Stop picking your nose, count to ten, add, multiply, divide, C+, A-, B+, applications, SATs, what do you want to major in, where are you taking your life. You ask so many questions and each one seems so important, and yet we are given a minuscule amount of time to answer, without much knowledge to help us along. You mark us as intelligent or stupid, based on a small number of questions on a single day. These grades determine our place in society, if we will be successful, and how much we will earn. Well I say stick it up your rear end!
I believe that intelligence should be determined not by a single letter, but the whole person. Human interaction should be taken into account. Questions should be asked, but not on a piece of paper and not on a single day. The emphasis of education should be on the acquirement of knowledge and not on the final grade. Those who work and understand should grow and become scholarly without feeling the need to rank themselves or anyone else around them.
The culture in the classroom would be so much less competitive. Those weeding out classes which ask such useless information that causes students to fail and drop out should not exist. Classes should be difficult, but the student should be allowed to realize his or her own ability and whether or not they should pursue a career in that field without having to have an F shoved in their face.
Just imagine how much healthier students would be without the daily stress of grades, and the ever present possibility of failure. Students would no longer have weaker immune systems because of their constant level of stress causing them to acquire cold after cold. If you did not constantly remind us of our ranking in the educational system, then we might be healthier, happier human beings.
You should not be allowed to force us to take tests that in no more than 3 hours determine our intelligence with no second chances, and no corrections. How are we to learn to love knowledge and education when you are constantly telling us we are wrong or not good enough? How are we to enjoy life when we must walk around with a letter over our heads announcing to the world how we compare and how successful we will be. Are we automatically a failure if we fail a class? That grade will never go away. It will follow us everywhere like a banner telling our bosses, mentors, parents, and siblings of our shame and stupidity. You are forever obsessed with categorizing humans.
You are unfair and pitiless in your endless quest to fit us into boxes that mark us as successful A’s or dumb F’s. You offer us no forgiveness and suck all the life out of learning. That is why I wash my hands of you. I will acquire the knowledge that inspires me and you can go grade yourself!
3 comments:
A funny yet serious rant. You should consider focusing on the modern perception of intelligence as exhibited by grades for your main essay topic.
Talk about how subjective grades are? What reflection of our knowledge is it really? Propose an alternate plan?
This is is really good statement. I feel like between AP tests, SATs, ACTs, and everything else, getting into college was so much more stressful than any class I've taken here so far. I really like your idea and think you can do a really good piece on how kids are being brought up to identify their worth with their grades.
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