Not too long ago I came up with what I determined was the perfect simile for attending school: it feels like drowning. It feels like I’m being hit with wave after wave of assignments, and just when my head finally breaks the surface of the water a tsunami pushes me back under, asphyxiating me and killing what little hope I had of retaining my sanity. To reiterate using different similes: each new writing assignment feels like a slap in the face; each new reading stings like a whip splitting the skin on my back. I frequently wonder why I put myself through such torment. As far as I know, I’m not a masochist (to be certain, masochism is a trait I should hope I am aware of in myself). Further contemplation illuminates my oft-forgotten reasoning. I need to go to school because I’ve been told that secondary education improves the chance of employment and that I should be grateful I have access to the education so many people long to attain. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I have access to education and my thirst for knowledge is insatiable (however clichéd that phrase may be), but going to school is a painful experience. I’ve realized that educational institutions, particularly those in the United States, are inherently flawed in terms of writing programs, that pace at which students learn, and elitism. I. Pacing Though it might be an odd thing to say in an essay that began by complaining about receiving too much work, I firmly believe the pacing of American education is too slow. By the time I reached the end of my sophomore year of high school I’d already earned nearly enough credits to graduate (I completed all of my high school math and art requirements in middle school as part of a special program). I essentially only needed two more English classes and two more history/government classes. I could have taken all of these classes my junior year and graduated a year “early”, or I could have taken one or two each summer leading up to my sophomore year and graduated two years “early” (I’m skeptical to accept the idea of early, as when I graduated was determined by the institution rather than by my abilities. In my opinion, there’s no such thing as early graduation, just faster graduation). Unfortunately, my high school system did not allow “credit advancement,” which means you can only take English and history/government classes in the year you’re “supposed” to take them. I find this problematic because I was held back unnecessarily. I hesitate to say I wasted the years, but I don’t see why I couldn’t have spent those years pursuing my secondary education. For some reason, educators have created a strict, inflexible learning schedule for students. In order to access the next set of material, students need to age up. Ideally, school systems would allow students to move up to the next level without having to wait. If a student is willing and able to learn, they should be allowed to do so. I’ve heard arguments against early graduation (I can’t find any for a citation at the moment) saying that sophomores are not psychologically ready for college. This, of course, depends entirely on the individual. It seems to me, though, that a student who has taken the initiative to complete the coursework at such an advanced rate is more than ready for university. Take Stephen Stafford, for example, who entered Morehouse College at age 13, just two years younger than when the esteemed Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior began attending college. Needless to say, talent blossoms with unfettered access to education. II. Writing Programs Most of the weaknesses I’ve seen in education relate to the ways in which schools teach academic and creative writing. As far as creative writing goes, the main flaw is a simple lack thereof. While creative writing programs exists, the classes generally count as electives unless the person taking the class happens to be a literature or English major. The absence of creative writing in the standard curriculum seems to say that creative writing isn’t real writing. It also says that creativity isn’t important, when the opposite is true. An old English proverb sites necessity as the “mother of all invention,” but the proverb needs to be amended to say “necessity and creativity are the mothers of all invention.” Last year, Huffington Post lauded science and creativity as “the perfect couple” and there are textbooks dedicated to creativity in business. Obviously, the ability to imagine and write about unicorns conversing with narwhals in a forest of fire does not have direct application in chemistry, but being able to think through the details of an “impossible” scenario (“impossible” I quotation marks because human beings tend to exaggerate and call difficult situations impossible) is certainly a valuable skill when it comes to solving problems. In the realm of academic writing, programs emphasize the writing process without going into depth about content and clarity. Often, professors will urge a student to make a more firm, concise thesis without showing them how to do so. While I recognize the importance of letting students try to produce clear content by themselves, I also believe it is important to equip students with a tool set with which they may attempt to improve their writing, and, in my experience, academic programs tend to lack this feature. By the time most students reach university, they are well aware of the basic introduction-body-conclusion essay structure. It is therefore unnecessary to spend time teaching students how to build an essay. Rather, we need to put more energy into increasing the quality of each particular section. In doing this, students will not only improve the particular skill a workshop may focus on, but also gain other skills by association. For instance, a workshop on word choice and variation would improve the overall impact of the essay by helping students choose the most precise words (which is the primary goal) while also helping a student eliminate “empty words,” or words that add nothing to the project (which is the secondary goal). Assignments pertaining to the writing process can also be a detriment to the development of young writers’ projects. While helpful for getting ideas flowing, these assignments become a distraction later down the line. Students start to focus more on the short-term draft assignments than their larger full-essay goal, which leads to the invention of hodge-podge essays made by stitching previous draft assignments together three hours before the final draft is due. Small draft assignments give the illusion of a cohesive progression of ideas when in reality the drills feature one idea after the other with no apparent connection in between. Creative an essay from these produces chunky work, often with a lack of transition and logic. Larger draft assignments are even more dangerous, as they give the impression that an essay is finished, when in reality I’ve only completed two or three pages out of eight. In the odd event that I manage to write a full eight page draft, that draft is riddled with inconsistencies and poor use of language. It’s also generally missing and introduction and conclusion. Nevertheless, by the time I’ve written a full draft, I’ll have convinced myself that the essay is done and that it need very little attention before the final draft due date. Inevitable, I wind up pulling an all-nighter attempting to rescue a draft I never should have written. For as many draft assignments as students write, the rewriting process is severely underemphasized. Short draft assignments tend to be unrelated to each other, which means previous assignments gather dust until it’s time to piece together a full essay. Once the full essay is done, we receive a grade and think nothing more of the assignment. Global Perspectives on Society I (GPC I) made an attempt to remedy this problem by asking for an optional essay rewrite at the end of the course. Students could choose an essay they already submitted, edit it, and resubmit it in hopes of receiving a higher grade. While GPC I’s efforts are commendable, they fall woefully short of illuminating the benefits of rewrites. Just as writing programs mandate multiple drafts in an effort to habituate students to the drafting process, programs should include rewrites so they also become a natural part of students’ processes. Instead of turning a “final draft,” which implies the end of a project, we should be turning in “most recent drafts” that underscore the ongoing process of sculpting an essay. From an educator’s perspective, ideal students would rewrite their essays regardless of whether there is a grade involved. While I agree with this, I also know the lives of students are filled with classes and extracurricular activities that will (hopefully) make us look good to our future employers. For now, something that isn’t worth a grade isn’t worth our time (though we desperately want to learn, we also like to eat and sleep). III. Elitism Consumerism has infected American society, and education is not exempt from the hands of greedy buyers. I don’t mean this in terms of people buying schools and turning them around for a profit, although it does happen, I simply mean that American society has equated a higher price tag with a better education. On one hand, the mindset makes sense. Things that are better quality are often more expensive. When it comes to education, however, the money is going towards people, supplies, and buildings. As money can only do so much in motivating someone to take their job more seriously, the money usually goes towards facilities (buildings, swimming pools, etc.) and extracurricular activities (athletics). Branding has also become excessively important in education. Ivy League schools have legacies either because they’re really old, or because they produced someone famous back when the idea of secondary education was new. These brands are extremely helpful in getting a graduate an interview, but is the education really that different? If the Ivy League education system is so revolutionary, why hasn’t the rest of the country started adopting its model? The answer lies in American society’s attempt to instill hierarchy in the education: if the Ivy League model proliferates education, the Ivy League will no longer be the elite league. Americans like to draw a distinct line between the haves and the have-nots. Ivy League schools aren’t the only schools that break the bank, either. New York University is frequently cited as one of the most expensive schools in the United States, but it’s nowhere near the most expensive on the US Department of Education’s list. Students are willing to pay the exorbitant price of education for the diploma that comes at the end of three to six years (depending on the particular program) of satisfying an institution’s educational criteria. The diploma is the end goal of attending college, and while learning happens along the way, that education would be meaningless in the world of employment without the piece of paper that certifies a student’s willingness to bend over backwards. Essentially, a diploma is “a receipt printed on fine card stock,” to borrow Joe Pinkser’s phrasing. These receipts open doors that would otherwise be cemented shut. I’ve only scratched the surface of the education’s main issues. In fact, this essay will most likely become part of a longer, less personal piece at some point in the future. In terms of pacing, school systems need to figure out a way to handle students who consistently perform outside of expectation, whether that means performing better or worse. For writing, instructors need to realize the value of the prompt. Essay writing is not about what to write but why. Telling students why they are writing an essay is likely to produce much more interesting and insightful work (I actually didn’t realize how important the why is until I took Clay Shirky’s class last semester, I found myself working much harder on the essay simply because I understood the reason for the assignment). The rest of my arguments regarding elitism are not new, but definitely need to be revisited. Education does not need out price a house, and there’s no particular reason employers should view one degree as more valid than another. I’m a champion of an education overhaul, one that creates an egalitarian environment in which students that strive to succeed, will succeed. This article was written by Sarabi Eventide. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Wikipedia