From a very young age we are told that we must go to school to become intelligent and functioning members of society; but how effective is the current education system? Erica Goldson gave her high school valedictorian speech on that very same topic in which she condemned the public education system. The American education system ought to value creativity and individual uniqueness over receiving high grades and scores.
Every student is unique which is why it is such an important problem that schools attempt to teach students much in the same way. Students have many different interests and skills which should be highlighted rather than ignored. Erica Goldson stated that, “We are thinkers, dreamers, explorers, artists, writers, engineers. We are anything we want to be - but only if we have an educational system that supports us rather than holds us down”. With the increasing amounts of homework and projects that students are assigned it …show more content…
In Finland there are no mandated standardized tests and more importantly there are no comparisons or competition between students. Contrastingly, Barack Obama has created the Race to the Top initiative where tests and similar approaches are used to gauge whether or not states will receive additional federal funding further igniting competition in education. If a student is having difficulty with a concept, special methods are created for that student which almost thirty percent of students in Finland receive in the first nine years of schooling alone. America spends the most per student than any other country while eighty-two percent of students graduate from high school. Finland, on the other hand, spends thirty percent less than the United States and has a graduation rate of ninety-three percent. This shows that the flaw with the United States’ education system lies not with lacking resources or funding but has the wrong approach
Every student is unique which is why it is such an important problem that schools attempt to teach students much in the same way. Students have many different interests and skills which should be highlighted rather than ignored. Erica Goldson stated that, “We are thinkers, dreamers, explorers, artists, writers, engineers. We are anything we want to be - but only if we have an educational system that supports us rather than holds us down”. With the increasing amounts of homework and projects that students are assigned it …show more content…
In Finland there are no mandated standardized tests and more importantly there are no comparisons or competition between students. Contrastingly, Barack Obama has created the Race to the Top initiative where tests and similar approaches are used to gauge whether or not states will receive additional federal funding further igniting competition in education. If a student is having difficulty with a concept, special methods are created for that student which almost thirty percent of students in Finland receive in the first nine years of schooling alone. America spends the most per student than any other country while eighty-two percent of students graduate from high school. Finland, on the other hand, spends thirty percent less than the United States and has a graduation rate of ninety-three percent. This shows that the flaw with the United States’ education system lies not with lacking resources or funding but has the wrong approach