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What is the purpose of high school?
Ask a teacher this question, and he will automatically spit out an array of generic responses: high school is meant for broadening your horizons, discovering yourself, and all the other fluff-infested answers you can imagine, which school administrations have trained teachers to say.
What is the purpose of high school?
After asking numerous friends the following question, I received one of these responses:
(1) I have no idea.
(2) The only purpose is to get A's and maintain a high GPA for college.
What did you learn in high school?
After asking my friends post-graduation the following question, here's what I received as an answer:
(1) I forgot 90% of the material I learned over the past four years.
You don't need a magnifying glass to recognize that the word "education" is absent from the above explanation. I can explain why.
After graduating from high school in 2017, I remember reflecting upon my past four years and what exactly it was that I had really learned. It is then that a troubling realization overcame me. As I attempted to recollect the information, I found that everything aside from my last few months of 12th grade was an enormous blur and that 9th grade had been completely erased from my memory.
What had I learned? This:
Like many students, I had spent the majority of high school mindlessly studying an array of topics for hours just so I could receive another A on my transcript. Whenever I stepped out of the room after an exam, all of the information that my brain had swallowed was instantly regurgitated. I didn't study to learn, I studied for the test, I did what I was told and rarely ever used my brain or applied my knowledge in a creative manner. I was an academic robot. If ever there happened to be a subject that I truly loved and longed to explore further, I couldn't spend the time to do so. I couldn't because for me to actually learn something that I was passionate about would take away from the time I needed to study for my useless French exam the next day. So instead of "expanding my horizons," a promise that secondary and higher education institutions often make to students, I would instead neglect my passion and divert energy into other homework that served no purpose to me.
Photo credit: http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/newsroom/2017/08/14/happens-get-stressed/ (University of Nottingham)
And once the homework phase commenced, my bedroom would transform into the den of an insane workaholic, one that would become furiously enveloped in her studying. The only time I dared interrupt my intense, recursive memorization routines was for record-fast dinners, and the only true outlet from work I received was sleep. However, for me to even claim that dreams overnight had acted as a break from my academic trance would be an exaggeration. For most of my four years in high school, especially 11th and 12th grade, I would toss and turn into the dead of night, the source of my insomnia being standardized tests, school exams, and college admittance. Sometimes, the only fuel that kept me awake was my own adrenaline. Day in and day out, I was a concealed mess of stress and anxiety, sacrificing my well-being for high grades. Day in and day out, this is the life that past, present, and future students experience.
Does it come as a surprise, then, that with continual stress and anxiety surrounding academics and post-secondary prospects, that education, a principle that schools are founded upon, has no place whatsoever in a student's high school experience? There no doubt exists a severe, fundamental flaw in the present American education system. This alarming fact is made known by a plethora of America's student body, which acknowledges that this nation's academic institutions have nothing to do with education, all to do with acting as graduation factories, and where the only thing that students think about is college acceptance letters.
Does it come as a surprise, then, that with continual stress and anxiety surrounding academics and post-secondary prospects, that education, a principle that schools are founded upon, has no place whatsoever in a student's high school experience?
Unfortunately, this is the cold hard truth about education in the United States. Having gone through this broken system and critically analyzed my experience, I have drafted a series of key problems that I believe need to be addressed. The purpose of this article is not only to provide my opinion on the current state of education in the United States, but to also provide solutions that if implemented can resolve the present academic curriculum conundrum.
1. The manner in which material is currently taught in schools does not target long-term memory, and encourages rote memorization
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Let's take math class as an example. My experience in high school was often the following: on a nearly daily basis, the teacher would breeze through at least an entire topic in a single class period. The quick pace at which the teacher would explain fundamental materials, as well as difficult concepts, left me with little time to absorb the mass of information that I had just acquired. When the time came to complete assigned in-class exercises, my peers and I would look at each other dumbfounded, unknowing of where to start. Since my friends and I knew that only more information would pile on with time, we would resort to rote memorization as the only method of retaining information.
Rote memorization and comprehension are two vastly different processes: the former hardly scratches the surface of a subject, extracting only the bare essentials that will equip the student with enough knowledge to ensure success on the next exam. Plowing through a subject and barely understanding it is an ineffective method that is doomed to fail.
Rote memorization and comprehension are two vastly different processes: the former hardly scratches the surface of a subject, extracting only the bare essentials that will equip the student with enough knowledge to ensure success on the next exam.
Instead of subjecting students to useless memorization of facts that will likely be forgotten the next day, I believe that teachers should administer daily, periodic check-ups in class to analyze students' progress. These check-ups can take the form of a five-minute class discussion or written surveys in which students can communicate their current level of confidence in the material. If the majority of students seem to be struggling with a topic, it should be further clarified and explained in class until students completely understand it. This can translate into a lengthy learning process; however, if the purpose of school is to prepare students for their future endeavors, it is imperative that curriculums be flexible and address the needs of all students to reinforce meaningful comprehension of material rather than mindless memorization.
Taking The "Rote" Out of Rote Memorization
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Ph.D William R. Klemm, a senior professor of Neuroscience at Texas A & M University, substantiates my proposal in his study called "What Good Is Learning If You Don’t Remember It?" from The Journal of Effective Teaching. In his paper, Klemm asserts the following:
"The emphasis in school is always on what to learn and what it means. Who teaches how to learn? Do today’s students know how to memorize? I don’t think so. Most students, and many of their teachers, memorize by rote. Rote memorization is not only inefficient, but it encourages learners not to think – just memorize."
In Klemm's paper, under the heading "A Teaching Game-plan That Works", the professor outlines an effective teaching routine that he calls a "10-minute rule":
"The rule goes like this: teach/learn something for 10 minutes. Then for the next 10 minutes rehearse and apply that information in some way. It might be in the form of discussing the information or re-organizing notes or developing image associations to help memory. Then take a few minutes of break where the material in rehearsed in the mind without any interruptions or new information. Then a new set of instructional material can be considered in the 10-min-rule format. Successive 10-min segments can use the chunking model just mentioned in which core knowledge is successively linked toward mastery of a larger set of competencies."
Klemm's method speaks to the importance of regularly applying immediately learned material, which strengthens the idea of a check-up strategy that I proposed earlier. Klemm also states in his paper that, "Such teaching should promote a more complete, contextualized learning environment that can not only raise test scores but also be more effective in producing memories that lead to transportable skill acquisition and problem-solving capability."
Converting Short-Term Scraps Into Long-Term Memory
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Professor Klemm's research makes it clear that rote memorization is the antitheses of long-term memory. He states that the goal of teachers is to have there students remember material long after it is taught in class; however, without recurrent practice of information that is acquired in the past, Klemm states, "That is why final exams are so difficult for students. That is why a summer break erases much of the educational progress that was made during the year. What is really important to educational effec- tiveness is the consolidation process by which short-term memory is converted to long- term memory." Moreover, students often have a difficult time reviewing past materials on a frequent basis because they are constantly worried about the next exam. Students struggle with long-term memorization precisely because of the fact that their minds are stuck in the future, rarely in the present.
Klemm also offers his own model for effective memorization:
"[This model] is based on well-accepted principles of the processes for converting temporary memory into permanent form. Initially, new information resides on the brain’s “scratch pad,” and it undergoes two important analyses. The information needs to be compared with what is already known. This comparison ideally includes making associations with what is already known. These associations can then serve as cues that become imbedded with the new information and can be used later to facilitate recall. New information also should be evaluated for relevance and importance."
In addition to Klemm's model on long-term memory, Memorization expert Anita Acai, MSc Candidate, Health Science Education of McMaster University stated that, "Part of long-term learning is essentially connecting and integrating things into things that you already know, whereas memorizing is more of a surface-level technique. "
Both Klemm's model and Acai's statement emphasize the fact that the conversion of information to long-term memory is a dynamic process, one that must constantly be updated and practiced. Until the United States schooling system comes to a realization that rote memorization, which is due to the poor administration of information by teachers in class, is the culprit that is undoing educational success, academia's goal for students to convert learned material into their long-term memory might as well be a wild dream.
http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Papers/Prince_AL.pdf
2. The current school system drains creativity, which is important for the "real world."
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The purpose of school is to prepare students for the future. However, the current educational structure works against this intention. Students are expected to do exactly what the rubric tells them and dare not deviate from the standard in fear of receiving a poor grade. This is not how the real world works; within society, creativity and problem-solving are not only praised but are also vital in the everyday operation of business. There is no rubric for solving a software problem or five-paragraph-essay outline to draft a piece of investigative journalism. When students are let out into the real-world and asked to think outside of the box, it can be incredibly difficult for them because they were never raised to think this way in school. I propose that schools reform the conventional types of homework they assign and transform it into a series of creative assignments that enable students to devise their own unique solutions. This would not only be more meaningful but would unleash the student's creative potential–crucial for when the student enters the workforce.
The Research
In her 2010 paper titled "Creativity and Education", Dr. Robina Shaheen of the University of Birmingham's School of Education highlights the importance of creativity in the school curriculum. Shaheen states that governments' prospects for achieving a "creative society" is suppressed by pressure to stick to standard national curriculums. Shaheen explains:
"One of the reasons why education systems have been regarded as barriers to developing and “releasing creative potential in the economy” is that the teaching focuses on “knowledge acquisition” (Davies, 2002). Knowledge, as an outcome of education is said to be no longer sufficient (Scoff- ham, 2003; Guilford, 1975). This is because it is difficult to know what knowledge will be needed in the future (Parnes, 1970)."
The latter half of Shaheen's statement speaks to the fact that static facts acquired in school have no real use in a multi-faceted, dynamic environment that we call our modern world. Today's employers are in search of innovative pioneers, not mindless consumers of information devoid of the vital concept of creativity. Additionally, Shaheen voiced her own opinion on the matter, stating:
"Our devolved government should have the courage and the faith to back human imagination, our innate creativity, as the most potent force for individual change and social vision. I believe we should make the development of our creative drive the next major enterprise for our society...I believe this has the potential to be a new civic exercise on a par with health, housing and education – the commitment to providing and valuing creative expression for all."
Though Shaheen comes not from the realm of the United States education system, the issues that she emphasizes on the topic of creativity in education entirely parallels the problems seen throughout American academic institutions.
3. Students should have the option of a specialized education.
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In school, students are forced to take a variety of subjects all at once. If a student is passionate in one area, for example, science and engineering, the student still has to take arts and humanities courses. But, why? Shouldn't the student be allowed to pursue the discipline that most intrigues him or her...the topic in which he/she will most likely see success? Rather than requiring students to take an array of classes, students should have the option to specialize their education. The student should have the ability to take only the classes that benefit the student's passion and the pursuit of a viable career. This would create a meaningful educational track and prevent students from failing out of classes in which they are not interested.
4. Cumulative tests are the only method employed to analyze one’s mastery of a subject.
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The only way that schools can confirm a student's mastery of a subject is through cumulative tests. These tests, however, fail to take into account whether the student received an A because she actually understood the material, or if the student received an A because she purely memorized gobs of information that are now long gone from her memory. In order to eliminate this gray area and to ease student's anxiety about exams, tests should be replaced with creative projects. These projects will enable students to apply themselves and actually understand how the material is applicable to the realm outside of academia. Creative projects are the only practical way to see if a student truly understands the information taught in class.
The Current State of Cumulative Tests and The Dirty Truth
A 2011 report from the National Academy of Sciences titled "Incentives and Test-Based Accountability in Education" showed that current high school examinations are an inadequate assessment of student knowledge. The report states the following:
"Some aspects of performance in many tested subjects are difficult or even impossible to assess with current tests. And even for aspects of performance that can be tested, practical constraints on the length and cost of testing make it necessary to limit the content and types of questions. As a result, tests can measure only a subset of the content of a tested subject."
So why does the American school system continue to administer cumulative tests that serve zero purpose to students? The answer to this question is deeply rooted in self-interest. Across the United States, students study not to obtain information or to feed their curiosity, but rather to get exams over with. If a teacher's students do poorly on an exam, they get an earful from the administration. This places immense pressure on teachers to prepare students for tests rather than to actually teach information for learning purposes. Therefore, students may end up scoring higher on tests, but they won't actually acquire any real knowledge in the process. School administrations are well aware that test scores are the key to funding, and can even make or break careers. Thus, schools do everything in their power to maintain the highest possible test scores – even if that means sacrificing the education of their own students. How paradoxical!
Schools do everything in their power to maintain the highest possible test scores – even if that means sacrificing the education of their own students.
Ph.D. Jim Taylor of the University of San Francisco, who teaches psychology, stated the following about the study:
"We can't forget that these testing programs are part of the "educational-industrial complex" that reaps billions of dollars a year in profits. Clearly, these so-called stakeholders are more concerned with their P & L statements than what is in the best interests of students. And, as with so many other powerful industries, the testing cabal has the ear and wallets of the politicians who set policy while those who actually know a few things about education, such as teachers, don't get a seat at the policy-making table."
The result of all of this? Incredible sums of money invested annually on exam-testing programs that are motivated by self-interest, profits, and tests that do the exact opposite of their intended purpose: assess the true knowledge base of students.
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