The Ways that Education Could Change by Hannah

The Ways that Education Could Change by Hannah - July 2022 Scholarship Essay

Education has advanced so much throughout the years. In recent years, classrooms have gone from chalkboards to smart boards and from worksheets to laptops. However, there are more changes that need to be done in education.

One change that needs to happen in education is that schools need to accommodate more students’ mental health needs. Mental health is a very important part of our everyday lives. If a student has poor mental health, this can result in their grades, social lives, and physical health declining. This can also result in an increase of risk behaviors. Schools can take care of students’ mental health through hiring staff that are trained in dealing with mental health crises, and build safe and supportive environments for students to learn in. Also, schools can address what may be causing a student’s mental health to decline and change it if it is in their control. For example, if a student is feeling depressed due to being bullied by a classmate, the school can take disciplinary actions to make sure the bullying stops.

Another change that needs to happen in education is that schools need to develop education toward students individually. Many teachers treat lessons as if “one size fits all”, meaning that they assume that the whole class will understand lessons. This mentality does more harm than good towards students. Some students feel confused once they leave lessons because they did not understand the lesson. Teachers can help to do this by splitting up the class in their differentiated learning groups and having lessons being taught in those groups that appeal to that learning group. For example, a group of visual learners can learn in these groups through watching a tutorial or lesson on what they are learning. Then, the teacher can have the class come back together after they learn and discuss what they have learned to make sure each student has learned the lesson.

A further change that can be made in education is that there needs to be less stress put on students about grades. Throughout schooling, students always hear that grades and test scores are very important by teachers and parents. In education, this is true. Your test scores can determine which colleges you get into, and with that, what career you could have in the future. This gives lots of stress on students to do better. This stress can cause harm to students. Stress can debilitate a student’s focus, which can cause them to score low on their tests. Stress can also affect a student’s physical health, as chronic stress can cause less sleep, impaired brain function, and it can suppress the immune system. There is a need for teachers and parents of students to encourage good grades, but to also remind students that their grade does not determine them or their future.

When looking at my changes that can be made about education, I see that there is a need as a whole in education to care more about students’ wellbeing and make sure that they are understanding what is being taught. Learning should be fun for students and should not seem stressful or confusing.