COLUMN: Education's Time for Change

When examining the many arguments regarding U.S. secondary education, I’ve discovered one common factor: No one has a solution. I include myself in this “no one” — I don't have the answers, but I do have a number of thoughts and ideas.

When I am faced with a difficult situation, I use this advice: restart, rebuild and begin anew. But to restart education as an institution, the existing system must first be demolished. This idea tends to scare some people, and their reaction is understandable. However, this process isn't completely negative. While it will be painful to change the current methods at first, the new system will bring hope for improvement and better results.

There are three areas that education's decision-makers need to pay particular attention to:

• individualized learning;
• class motivation; and
• student discipline.

Performance or thought?

One tried-and-true argument against the education system, especially from current students, is that it's too generalized for a diverse group of adolescents. I attend a Christian school where students are taught that each person is meant to work differently and play different roles as a piece of a whole body. When a cookie-cutter system is created for all primary and secondary students, it's going to work for many learners, but not all of them.

Instead of being forced to learn one way, students should be able to master skills through various instructional methods. High school classmates should walk away with the same knowledge, but they should be able to gain that knowledge through teaching that caters to their individual learning styles.

Rather than comprehending what they’re taught, a large number of students simply learn the system: They know the right actions to take to receive high grades. However, the knowledge they retain isn't significant. For example, a lot of students memorize textbook material, which they regurgitate on their tests. But they can't apply all of this knowledge to everyday life.

Other students simply become disillusioned, which causes them to be lazy because they don't find meaning in the work they're asked to do. The system appears to be designed to teach students how to perform, not to think.

One method that can help students learn is peer collaboration. By creating relationships with other people, pupils have the potential to grow immensely. The classes in which I learned the most were classes where the students and the teacher worked together and encouraged discussion.