Speech-Johnathan Morris

It’s the night before the test.  You’ve spent the last three and a half hours studying and you cant sleep because you’re worried you’re going to forget everything. After a restless night you get up and get ready running on only 47 minutes of sleep and a pop tart. You spend every free second of the day before the test reviewing. You take the test, get an A-, and you’re proud of yourself. The next day you’re already replacing that information you learned with stuff for another class. So what was the point of studying in the first place? The answer is that nobody cares about learning the material, they just need to know it for a short period of time so they get a good grade. Because that’s the only thing that matters, the grade. I’m as guilty as anyone. If I had to retake the same math test I took last week I wouldn’t get half the score. I made sure that I knew the material long enough to take the test and then I could care less if I remember or not. That’s the problem with schools now, were only focused on getting good grades to get into college to get a good job. Learning is not as important.

A big reason students don’t learn and have the information stay with them for a long time, is because he classes don’t interest them. We should get more freedom and pick classes that appeal to us instead of classes that aren’t important to us. Like Albert Einstein said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing it is stupid.” So instead of forcing the students that are good at art to take chemistry and then making them feel dumb when they get a C, we let them take art classes and learn what they need to know to make a career out of what they love.

Another thing I don’t understand is why teachers force us to do work without a calculator or getting help from other students. What’s wrong with utilizing your resources to be more successful? Schools should teach us to be resourceful and use what we have to get things done, instead of making us rely on only what we can do by ourselves. We should learn how to communicate with others in order to help each other succeed. According to an article on quintcareers.com, the top two qualities employers look for are communication skills and research skills. The ability to take tests and do work by yourself wasn’t on the list.

Now the one thing that I believe causes students the most stress, is the homework load we receive night after night. Some teachers seem to be unaware that most students have other interests outside of school whether it be sports, music, books, etc. that we use to escape from schoolwork and enjoy ourselves. Researchers from the University of Michigan found that the amount of time spent doing homework is steadily increasing through all grade levels. This can cause more of a disinterest in school and can lead to more students dropping out. Finland’s graduation rate is 18 percent higher than the U.S. and the main difference between us and them is that they don’t have homework.

The faults in our school system will not be solved by kids complaining on twitter that school sucks and school is boring. Instead, make the most of what you have. Take the classes that really interest you if you have an open hour. Try to learn the subject by keeping up with the information throughout the unit and by doing that you can learn the material and still get the grade. And either put up with the homework as best you can or move to Finland.

http://www.quintcareers.com/job_skills_values.html

http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/admin/admin182.shtml

http://neomam.com/infographics/there-is-no-homework-in-finland/