How to Reform Public Education With Financial Backing- Part Three of Three
Told From the Perspective of a Highschooler Currently in the Public School System
Recently, my current events teacher gave my class a very interesting assignment: Write to an elected official about the topic of your choice. As an author, writer, and attendee of public school, I decided to write to U.S. House Representative, Mark Takano, about public school reform. I’ve decided to share my words below. This is part three of three parts.
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Step Three: If all else fails, how does the government reform public education itself?
Disclaimer:
All of the sources that I’ve used throughout the three parts of my divided essay will be at the bottom of this page.
There are two ways that we can help better public education. Number one: teachers are required to have a degree in their field of tutelage while their minor has to be in education. Allowing teachers to obtain degrees in education instead of the field that they are teaching is causing a “teach by the test” method because a child’s teacher does not fully comprehend the subjects that they’re teaching and this leads to the child that they are teaching becoming incapable of thinking about what they are learning, but simply memorizing and repeating what they are told.
Number Two: Instead of standardized testing, students need to present presentations to their school board about what they have learned in each of their classes. The board can ask questions and this will test the student’s ability to think about issues that are not simply fed to them, remembered, and then forgotten. Standardized tests can be used, but should be used very rarely. This would also allow teachers to spend less time grading tests and quizzes, allowing them more time to plan thoughtful lessons.
This last part is what I, a highschool student, suggest that public schools should attempt. In my personal experience, the teachers who have been the least helpful to me and my peers are those who receive only an education degree rather than a degree in the subject that they are teaching.
I have also found that I am more engaged and feel more pressured to learn material when creating and presenting projects rather than answering multiple choice questions. The problem also with multiple choice questions is that ‘the BEST’ answer might be relative, and therefore, a student may answer the question incorrectly even when their reasoning might be correct.
For example, if there was a question on a business test for undergraduates that said:
What is the BEST response to learning that your coworker drinks wine at nine o’clock in the morning every day?
A. Tell your boss.
B. Talk to your coworker in private.
C. Alert the Federal Government.
D. Don’t do anything.First, it depends what job this person has. If they help command the military or have valuable information that many people would want, the federal government should be informed so that they can be removed from office. This would support option C.
Or, imagine that this person is a struggling alcoholic but also a single mother of two children. She can’t afford to lose her job. You talk to her in private and ask for her to attend rehab, otherwise, she will lose her job and still have an addiction. This would support option B.
If this person has refused your help, then the next step is to tell your boss because their obnoxious drinking habit has caused many clientintal to leave the firm that you work for. This could support option A. The answer is not clear.
I have many other ideas under this topic, but as you are probably overwhelmed, we can save the finer details for a later date.
Thank you for your attention while reading this small part of my plan to reform education. I hope to hear from you soon, as I feel that we would work well together. I am a writer, author, interviewer, and student. I hope you give my plans a chance and that you stay healthy during these uncertain times.
Sincerely,
Julia Rose Harmon
Landrum High School
Class of 2024
