Open letter to the State Board of Education:

Picture a world where students are not unsure of how to exist in a system that
doesnt run along the tracks of a grading hierarchy. A world where students are
people, rather than educational cogs, turning to fuel the standardized test scores. A
world where learning and schooling, are not the same thing, where students can
wake up on any given weekday, and not be a pawn on a fluorescently lit chess
board being controlled in a familiar blue plastic chair by some politician.
As a 16 year old, I have spent 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 9 months a year,
for 11 years in school. Thats 16,000 hours spent in a classroom, over an eighth of
my life.
The problem with our system is that we as students are being taught what to
think, not how to think, and we are being told what we have to do, not taught why
we should do it. This not only teaches us that the only real skill we need is
memorization, but it gives us no motivation, no reason to care about what we are
learning and what we are spending time on all day, every day in the classroom.
In this modern homogeneity, we have discovered that all we need to do to
succeed is work the system and all this does is teach us that students are not
actually students, but rather a GPA used to flag down federal funding. Simply put,
education has taken on a new meaning, and transformed into this idea of globalized
repetition that most students experience on a regular basis.
Americas educational concepts were developed hundreds of years ago and
for the most part, they havent changed at all. For comparison, when the education
system of today was created, it was common practice to rub mercury on scraped
knees, and heroin was the most advanced cough syrup on the market. The same
people that created our schooling, also created candy for mothers to calm their
infants filled with surgical amounts of morphine. These things werent done to harm
anyone, the people that created them simply didnt know any better. We have
surpassed these outdated practices, but we have left our schooling system the
same. The only way for students in the 21st century to succeed, is if they are given
an updated 21st century education.
The solution is simple, I urge you to consider the thought of switching
priorities in this system. If we as students are not given the tools to succeed, how
can we? Education should not be rooms full of showcase students memorizing work
that all looks the same. As a student at Animas, I have seen what good letting the
student tell you what is important to them can do as opposed to the other way
around. The system needs to shift to prioritize the students needs, rather than the
states. We need a way of defining knowledge other than an inaccurate
representation of how well we can conform. Einstein said it best, Everyone is a
genius, but if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live it whole life
believing that its stupid.