Self Worth by Madeleine

Self Worth by Madeleine - July 2022 Scholarship Essay

“Two weeks until AP season starts.”
“Don't forget, your SAT is this Saturday”
Testing. For me, that seemed to be the most prominent topic in the thirteen years I’ve been in school. Whether it was for a class, something required for college, or even state-mandated, it was test after test. Now, don't get me wrong, I see the benefits. I understand the importance of evaluating whether or not we understand what we are being taught, but to us, to society, that's not all it is. For us, it’s a measure of how good we are and how successful we’re gonna be. It’s gotten to the point where learning isn’t our main priority. It's about getting a good enough score so we can keep our A. Aiming for that 1600 so that we won't be seen as unworthy and crying when we don't achieve it because we feel like failures.
In the next 10 years, I hope to see education revert its focus back to learning. Take away the unnecessary pressure on kids because that's what they are, kids. Education should be about preparing kids for the world and teaching in a way that kids will actually learn and retain the information instead of immediately forgetting after the exam. This isn’t to say that we need to eliminate testing from education. Truthfully I just hope to see less emphasis on its importance. There are various methods to measure knowledge that don’t induce the stress of testing such as teacher check-ins, game-based assessments, and projects whether they be individual or group-based. I believe this change will not only better the education of students but it would also greatly improve the mental state of youth across the country. The youth who right now, measure their self-worth in a grade on a test.