For me, those questions were not answered. I don't know how I'm supposed to be functional adult when my main source of education is learning fifty different ways to solve for X. How about the fact that kids go to school and worry ONLY about their grades? The subject material is rushed and inadequate, and we are forced to regurgitate what we memorized back on the page to move on. Kids that fall behind? They're left behind as the course is forced to go on. Students will learn ways to take advantage of a flawed system where success is only measured by arbitrary letters on a card, not by actual intelligence or readiness to accomplish things as an adult. I get "good grades", however I don't consider myself smart or more well off than my classmates. Judging intelligence by grades, and placing such an emphasis on them will only hurt students. The real world seeks results, while school doesn't even seem to care that much anyway. My state requires ONE SEMESTER of "consumer education", a class where we played a bunch of games for two weeks before doing anything somewhat related to the actual class. Meanwhile we learned about how to divide exponential fractions and how to use imaginary numbers, something that may or may not be required in the future.
There's a video by a man named Louis Rossmann who talks about why kids don't like to read. Some interesting points are how students will prioritize getting the best grade they can to just pass the class. All these questions in order to "prove you read the book" which fits an arbitrary criteria. Students will take this as being only a way to get forward, instead of a learning opportunity. Summer reading projects are so bland, that you don't even need to read the books! I just googled sparknotes for the book I chose, and I still got a B- on the project.
My main concern, is that the system needs a revamp. You're considered an adult by the time you're 18, yes? So why is it they we learn more about dozens of math equations we'll never use instead of how to go well in a job interview? You know what would be better? If they taught us why these ridiculously hard to remember equations will work for us in life, and why we must learn them now as opposed to learning the life skills we need.
Personally, I believe we need to teach the vital information at a young age and move on from there. Kids are taught that we need to go to college, despite the fact that college is quite expensive. You'll probably end up working a job that doesn't even involve the four years of debt and time you wasted. School has us for 9 months of the year, for 1/4 of the day. What we get is classes introducing a subject, "learning" for a while, maybe a few weeks at most, and boom! Test. Repeat.
This article has a nice analogy.
Imagine you were building a house.
After buying the land, you hired a contractor to come in to make the foundation for the next 3 weeks.
3 weeks later, an inspector comes in and says that the work is 80% complete.
80% is a B, not bad, let’s go ahead and build the rest of the house on top of the foundation.
A year later, after trying to build the second floor of the house, the floor splinters and the house collapses.
I have only talked about education through highschool up to this point. Here's some worrying trends. Americans are actually regretting their college degrees. CBS News says
About 70% of college students graduated with student loan debt this year, averaging about $33,000 per student. And as younger grads pay off student loan balances, they're struggling to accumulate wealth or are putting off purchasing homes — some millennials are even struggling to purchase groceries.
This is completely unacceptable for a first world country. The statistics show students who to go college will end up more successful, yet we also have those same students living unfulfilled lives.