The Future of Education by Savonnah

The Future of Education by Savonnah - July 2022 Scholarship Essay

There are many flaws in the education system today, some may be easier to fix than others. The school system prides itself on the performance of standardized testing rather than the well being of the students. In the next ten years, I hope to see more reasonable schedules during the day, more creativity being encouraged and less standardized testing. In a system where young people are supposed to become prepared to contribute to the “real world”, they should be prioritized. Children are the future so they should be treated as such.
Schools in America can start as early as 7:45 am. This forces students to wake up even earlier to ensure they are prepared for school and have enough time to arrive on time. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, classes should not start any earlier than 8:30 am in order to “align school schedules to the biological sleep rhythms of adolescents.” Altering the daily schedules would allow students to naturally be in the flow of things, making them more productive and improving academic performance.
Another change that I think would be beneficial is creativity being encouraged. Today, most things in school have a structure or a specific way it is supposed to be done. Starting from projects, to dress code, to school rules. School kills creativity. People get so used to doing everything by the book that they no longer think about all the possibilities things can be done. In the future this can come back to hurt them. The world is constantly making alterations and there are always new variations of things. If the creativity is limited in young minds, will there still be new exciting things to discover or enjoy? There are so many possibilities to many things that you will never know about unless you try.
In addition to better school day schedules and an increase of creativity in schools, removing standardized testing would be another thing I would hope to see in the future of education. The educational system documents progress and success by numbers and scores. No student is seen as how creative they may be are the ideas they have, but rather than a set of numbers on a data sheet. Every student is required to take the same set of tests, but it is not taken into consideration that not every student learns the same. Some kids just aren’t good test takers because they are not good at working under pressure. When students receive low test scores compared to their peers, doors of doubt and being worth less open up. Students are bullied and are put in separate classes all because of a number on a paper. Scholars are expected to remember a unit's worth of information that they had to cram and answer questions about it. Despite the actual probability of them using most of the information they are tested on, the scores will always be something that defines them.
In conclusion, there are many changes that need to be reevaluated in the education system within the next ten years to better the future minds of the world. Within the next decade it would be nice to see school schedules that naturally align with the minds and bodies of young people, an increase of creativity, and most importantly less standardized testing. With these changes just even being considered I believe scholars would enjoy school more and become even more successful. A system made for student should have the consideration of students in mind.