Social Media Campaign: The Education System

If you went to kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, and high school, at eighteen years old, you spent a total of about 2,340 days, or 35 percent of your life, in school. But how much of that time was actually well spent? In this project, I wanted to analyze the education system, specifically the high school system. I, like the majority of high school students, absolutely dreaded school. I hated the classes-they were too long. I hated the tests- they were pointless. I hated the homework- all of it was just busywork. The only reasons I even went to school were for my friends and to get good grades for college. But now that I’m in college, that miserable mindset has changed into a much more positive one. I am motivated to find out what I really love to do and what I am passionate about. The only problem is, I have little to no idea what that actually is.

I went to a private high school. It was supposed to be one of the best in the county, and it was challenging, but in all the wrong ways. Instead of challenging myself to find what I am good at and what I am passionate about and developing those skills, I spent a lot of time merely going through the motions, doing the bare minimum to get an A and never really learning anything. But I never changed this mindset because one, it was working, and two, no one ever told me it was wrong. In everyone’s eyes, I was succeeding. I finished in the top ten percent of my class and earned decent scores on my ACT and SAT. But looking back on it all now, I realize that even though I went to a “good” school and did relatively well, I didn’t truly succeed because school got in the way of my education.

This is what I am trying to solve in this project. I want to change what the idea of a “good” education means, especially in high school. I believe that there is more to a “good” education than memorization and receiving high scores on standardized tests. I don’t believe that you are receiving a “good” education if the thought of school makes you sad and dejected. The goal of this project is to transform the high school system into a place where one can spend more time finding and pursuing what he/she is passionate about, rather than mindlessly going through the motions, which is what high school encourages today.

The target audience is essentially anyone who works in education, as well as high school and college students. Below I have the links to my Twitter page and website. I will be posting on these sites regularly, giving out content on the high school system for people to discuss and reply to, as well as links to other sites that inform people about the system we have today. I think this is important because the first step in solving a problem is realizing that there is a problem, and a lot of people don’t realize that there is a problem with the system today or are choosing to ignore it.

 

https://twitter.com/STES_MAC

 

https://fixhighschool.wordpress.com

 


Comments

Social Media Campaign: The Education System — 5 Comments

  1. I really empathize with you and your feelings towards high school. I had an almost identical experience at my private high school and I find it so aggravating that we waste so much precious time and resources doing the minimum amount of work to reach end goals. We should be focusing on the process of the work we are doing, not the end result of it. I think you could go bigger, however, with this campaign. I feel that a lot of students feel the same way we do and that you could really start something big in the school system through something like a hashtag that goes viral or a challenge. Great topic.

  2. Great Work Marc! I didn’t know the time we spent in school trying to learn. Yet, we are unable to recollect and remember stuff we learn before. My advice would be to target people of all ages, not just students. Targeting parents would increase your scope and make them aware of this issue as well. Same with grandparents as well.

  3. I understand your perspective. I would love to have felt that all of my classes, tests and homework assignments were worthwhile. I agree that schooling techniques should be reevaluated to enhance the students’ learning rather than memorization skills. There are also many life skills that are not taught in school which I feel is a great weakness in our education system. I’d advise you to speak about specific teaching strategies that are not affective (but may be heavily used by teachers) and what teachers should do in alternative. Great topic!

  4. I think this is an excellent topic, especially in regards to the education reform that is sweeping the nation. With this topic I think that you should target the format of SAT and ACT testing in order to have a more applicable testing to schools. In addition there should be efforts in removing all standardized testing for schools because they are pointless and waste time if they don’t mean anything except to school percentile indication. Another point in targeting the education reform is changing from lecture style schooling to seminar schooling. Even in primary schools the ability to communicate needs to start at a young age and in this country especially there isn’t enough student interaction, but boring lecturing. Thank you for addressing this topic.

  5. I agree with your point regarding standardized tests and things like that. At my school, there was a student who would do the bar minimum to pass class with like a C. He would always be sleeping in class and wouldn’t do his homework. His reason? He wasn’t interested on the topic. Once he took a subject that he liked, he really excelled as his interest made him research and go above and beyond what the teacher was expecting. Definitely, high schools should provide more courses where students can explore subjects.

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