Education: The Good, The Bad, and the

As important as the American education system is to our future, within it we can encounter numerous flaws.
Several flaws that I see within the education system are the grading scale, graduation requirements, and overall the way it is structured.

With the grading scale I deem it flat out stupid to show the intelligence of an individual. With most classes it is basically a memory game; you study for this to pass the test, study that to pass the next test. Are we really showing our intellect to the world based off of an "A," or are we just showing our ability to memorize a certain topic? People can easily achieve a high grade by simply cheating off the students that are around them. I find it funny how our entire lives are determined by a few letters on a piece of paper.

Graduation requirements is another aspect within the education system that is a red flag. In my perspective, I don't see the point of requiring students to take certain classes if most of the information that we are given won't be used in the future. Why should a student interested in science be forced to take a class on art, government, or economics? Although there is a benefit with this, it does give us a variety of options to chose to study in college. People's minds change; however, if someone already has their attention on a subject, they should have an option to put a little more focus in that field. Since we were little, we were taught to get good grades and go to college; this ideology applies more pressure than what there already is in school. Getting into a college shouldn't be taught as the only option to having a successful future. To add on to that, many students don't even want to attend college. To the many that do go to college, a handful end up dropping out.

This is not to say that our education is terrible. If you really think about it in a larger perspective - without the complaints- it does accomplish its job, and more. It does teach us aspects on life. There will be times were we struggle, like the nights were we have with endless amounts of homework and just want to give up, but we have to just power through it. Yeah, the circumstance is different, but the situation is the same. Also, when we are forced to do something that we don't want, but it would only result in our own benefit. In general it completes its function by teaching us.

-John Cuellar