We’ve all heard how school is the most important thing in the world. We were lectured by our parents to do our best and continue our education by going to college in order to secure a stable job. If you didn’t, then you were told that you would be working at a local fast food restaurant miserable for the rest of your life. As humans, we were taught at a young age that education is significant in our life. In today’s society, education is viewed as a necessity everywhere you go. No education usually means no job or a job that won’t suffice the majority of people. Presidents and other people of higher power are focusing on the important aspects of getting students to continue their education and enticing them to do so in order to better our society. Education is what makes the world spin, and without it, the discoveries we have made and the advancements we have gained would be lost. Education is essential; it is what paves the way for a good career and creates a solid foundation for individuals to build upon.
That aspect of education is nice and all, but looking at it from a different perspective, we see that there seems to be flaws within this system, more specifically the United States’ education system. As a student, I have realized that in middle school and high school we value test scores more than the education itself. We were constantly pressured into doing well and getting those high marks that the quality of education became more of memorization rather than actually soaking in the information to be utilized later on. The majority of teachers would only teach by what was given on the standardized exams; everything else was irrelevant. High exam scores would signify that the teacher was one of the best, while low ones would show that that teacher was lacking in their attempt to teach the subject. Because of that, people were inclined to cheat more frequently creating a shaky foundation to build upon. Another issue within our educational system is the fact that it seems that students now are more focused upon attending a college with a great athletic program rather than the education itself even if they are not involved in athletics at all. Diversity within a college campus or high school environment is also another aspect that is highly discussed nowadays as well, and who can forget about the funding for education?
Education is by far one of the most debated topics nowadays, and I feel that because it is such a significant part of our life and because it affects everyone, people should be educated about the controversies within education. We need to analyze what we are doing wrong, and hopefully learn from the past mistakes in order to better our society. If we continue down this path without addressing these controversial issues, we will just be running around in circles making no progress whatsoever. We need to address these issues and hopefully prosper like other countries have done with their educational systems.