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Documentary Reflection:

Most Likely to Succeed

Kayla R Creasy

Chesapeake College

IDC-201-201

April 30, 2023

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Most Likely to Succeed, addresses how today’s education is not fulfilling student needs,

interests, and how they will succeed later in society. The documentary pays reference to

curriculum, set subject standards, technology, testing, college preparedness, and much more as

they relate to what is being taught to students to prepare them for the outside world.

It caught my attention that curriculum in terms of what is being taught at certain ages is

based on principles that were set by a committee around 124 years ago. How can this even still

be relevant? In today’s society, people are going to college and not obtaining jobs that utilize

their degrees. In the 21st century, people are starting to have to compete with technology. What

happens when technology overpowers the capability of human knowledge? Most schools teach

students subjects to get them to pass tests and to get into college. However, remembering such

knowledge like so can be easily done by technology itself. I truly believe that educators and

school policy makers must reimagine education and look into a growingly advanced society to

redetermine what skills and qualities are really needed.

Most Likely to Succeed looks at a school known as High Tech High where new ways of

teaching and school structures can promote students who will actually succeed in a society with

competition from technology. High Tech High is a charter school that picks students through a

lottery picking system based on zip codes. This school is much different to others as it has no

certain classes, and subjects are combined. To elaborate, teachers are given complete autonomy

to teach whatever they want. This can range from, what they feel is better for students or what

they are passionate about. Teachers are still held accountable due to the fact that they only have

one year contracts and no tenure. This school is so interesting to me as it is explained in the

video that this new type of schooling takes students away from the push for more content

knowledge to knowledge that is free and growing. I enjoy the idea that learning is student
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centered at High Tech High. Instead of exams and report cards, students work on a major project

or exhibition to present in front of people.

The documentary raises thoughts and questions in my head that as a future educator is

critical to pay reference to. With technology overtaking jobs, people need to enter society with

skills that allow them to be resourceful, resilient, and full of innovative thinking. As the video

states, creativity and curiosities need to be celebrated and explored. This not only seems to

promote non-cognitive learnings that help them succeed in society. But, I believe this new way

of teaching would help pique student interests and want to learn.

Taking away the emphasis on learning for tests and getting good grades on report cards,

students are able to explore skills and learn different ways of thinking and creating. Oftentimes

during my education I had times where I questioned why I was learning something but this style

of education eliminates those feelings for students. The push for more content for high test scores

causes students to be seen less as humans and more as data points. Teachers do not have time due

to covering ridiculous amounts of content in such little time to feed student interests and

ambitions. However, with this new style of education like seen at High Tech High, students are

no longer being forced to fit this mold of what the mainstream society wants. Instead students

can grow into individualized humans with passions, creativity, perseverance, grit, and much

more. These are the people that will succeed in the future.

In conclusion, the documentary looks at education as it relates to how people will be able

to find a career in the growingly advanced and technological world. We have no idea how much

more complex the world is yet to become. It has always been warned that computers and

technology would one day pose a threat to jobs in the future but I truly do not think this would

ever be a concern this soon. So how can we revamp education to allow students to be able to get
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away from strictly subject matter for tests? As Most Likely to Succeed states students will one

day work new careers that have yet to even be created yet. So how can we prepare them to be

called upon and solve new problems? How do students learn to think critically and innovatively,

to take risks even if they fail, to be willing to try again, to be creative, and much more?
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Source

One Potato Productions. (2018). Most Likely to Succeed. Retrieved April 30, 2023, from
https://www.amazon.com/Most-Likely-Succeed-Brian-Cesson/dp/B07F7ZQRQQ.