The American Education System Needs to Change

  Hello everyone! I hope you've all had a pleasant, and warm week, as well as exciting spring break! I spent mine out in Arizona in the beautiful sun, so coming back to the abysmal winter of North Dakota has been a bit rough. Any way I wanna take the opportunity today to discuss how the American education system needs to adapt to provide the skills we need, not only in public schools, but at the University level as well.

When I think back on problems in the American education system the one that stands out to me the most, is the lack of flexibility within the system. There are millions of children in schools in the United States right now, and a majority of these students receive the exact same education, regardless of weather or not it works for that student. We are taught from a young age to go to school, work for four hours, take a thirty minute lunch break, then go back to work for the rest of the day. This schedule is exactly how office jobs work, but in some ways starting people on this schedule from a young age is a good thing, but again you can't apply one general idea too every single person. Our education system is also largely based on assessments and tests, which not everyone excels, for many students the pressure of taking a test within a timed limit puts them under too much stress. 

I remember sitting in my fourth grade classroom and already being approached about what I wanted to be when I am older. This is a major problem because trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life really stressed me out as a child, and in some ways still stresses me out. I don't think that this question should even be mentioned until your sophomore year of high school, any time earlier then this is ridiculous to even put on some ones mind. Most middle schoolers are just starting puberty, they don't even fully know who they are yet, but we expect them to start figuring out what they want to do when they graduate in 5 to 7 years. I think the education should diversify the courses that we are required to take starting at a younger age, that way students have a better way of knowing what they like once they get into their later years of high school, and carry on into college. When I was in middle school my entire schedule for 3 years was completely laid out for me, and all I did was Math, English, Physical Education, Science, and History. These are all very important subjects to touch on, but these five subjects account for such a small percentage of the jobs the world has to offer. There needs to be more diversity in the mandatory education we receive.

 This is one of the most complained about situations in the education system that I've heard, but life skill classes aren't required at any level of education. At no point through your time in the public education system do you learn to pay taxes, change a tire, how a credit card works, what an escrow is,  or live on your own in general. These are arguably the only thing that every single person in the United States will at some point need to know how to do, but we aren't educated on these topics in our high schools unless you choose to take those classes, these should be mandatory classes.

Lastly on the University scale, University degrees need to be more broad. There are too many employers that look for experience using a particular program to complete work on, which is something I think universities are not very good at, there aren't enough classes on certain programs that are used in the real world, and yes some of these programs are mandatory in specific classes for specific majors, but there are thousands of programs out there, so teaching only one is not sufficient. Universities need to work more so on teaching their students to be more adaptable to unique environments, and warn that the real job is nothing like the classroom. Realistically most people leave college and get their first professional job and they aren't prepared for actually applying what they learn and at times can almost be mislead as to what the job world is really like. There needs to be more time and effort put into teaching adaptability, problem solving, and communication skills because those are the driving factors in creating a good employee. Rather than trying to prepare someone for a specific job, just so they can get there and have to learn everything about the job through training anyways. 

The education we are provided is far from perfect and there should be change in the future, but for now you just need to improve your education and learning on your own time in order to fully get what you'll need in life. If you are still in high school and your school offers electives around personal finance, or living on your own I would strongly encourage you to take those classes, valuable lessons come from those classes. In the meantime I hope you all have an amazing rest of your week and don't stress yourselves out too hard! Take a moment to relax and breath whenever you get the chance.