Ashish+P’s+OpEd+Article

="School – Socially Corrupt Hell of Odious Labor" = =by Ashish P. = = =  Mark Twain once told America to “never let school interfere with education”. //He// actually said this almost 100 years ago. If Twain feared about the necessity of going to //High School//, then one might pause and wonder what he would have thought of the system of grades, GPA, SAT’s, and college admissions //today//.

Are we truly enrolled in a school to get an education? Or perhaps school is just a simple tool to get into college which, in turn, is another simple tool used to get into a post-graduate school, which is finally used as //another// tool used to get a high paying job. That is the route that most people must take in order to start working. Our system is now forcing most students to study for almost half of their lives. The average optometrist will only start earning a respectable salary after he or she turns 30. Why must we wait that long for success to come? I fear that the schooling systems are too harsh. They are giving us too many General Education classes with the hopes that we will be able to broaden our goals. But from my experience, most people at least have the subject of their career, if not their career of choice, decided. Someone who enjoys roller coasters and airplanes during the 8th grade will most likely strive to become an engineer.

Someone who is interested in such intricacies has a fat chance of becoming a writer or a doctor. Thus, why must we languish in these pointless GE classes that contribute nothing to what we will actually become in our later lives? It’s all because of colleges. Supposedly, to get accepted into a good college, one needs to be a well rounded perfectionist; getting straight A’s, joining every club, and playing 3 sports. I once thought that college was a magnet for individualism and the pursuit of your career. Why then, do they require a standardized list of achievements and accomplishments to even be //enrolled// in a college? It’s hypocritical to say the least!

In my 3 years of being a student at a high school, only 3 classes have truly affected me: Geometry, Algebra 2, Pre-Calculus, and Physics. Why? Because those classes are honestly the only classes that I will truly need to learn something in for my later life. If I plan to become a civil engineer or a pilot, then I will definitely need to know those principles…and those principles **//__ONLY__//**.

Furthermore, I have a fight to pick with the Führ of the system itself. The Collegeboard is at the pinnacle of this entire dilemma. They claim that they prepare students for college and help students to get in. Personally, I think that if the SAT/ACT didn’t exist, then I would have a much easier time getting into college. If I receive a score of 1700 or 1800 on my SAT score report this April, then my chances of getting into college will go **//down//** compared to not having the SAT at all. Their tests are also standardized for every student in America, further strengthening the fact that our system is entirely hypocritical in their “support” for Individualism. Why should we create a standard for every student? It only serves to make certain people sad when they receive an agonizing 1780 SAT score while they watch their friend get 2150. So much for individualism…and self esteem…. L

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