epiWEB EXCLUSIVE

The failure to effectively teach is the main flaw in the American public education system, but the teachers and textbooks aren’t the problem. The nation’s public education system is built on a precedent that promotes only success, despite the fact that failure is a learning experience. Have you ever avoided taking a class for fear of failure?

The education system needs to be changed so that children are not raised for academic perfection, but to be able to apply what they learn and correct their mistakes. How can we push ourselves or try new things when failure results in a lower college acceptance rate or lower class ranking? How can we expand our intellectual horizons when standardized tests chain us to common core curriculum? How can I further my love of learning when I know that the result could be horrific, simply because I struggle in a certain subject area?

School was built so that children could expand their minds, discover what interests them and build the foundation for personal success. While the education system strives to create a virtuous population of children who learn that working intently creates success, they fail to recognize the fundamental fact that those who wish to learn deserve the ability to expand their minds without being judged for it with a recorded disapproval.

I should not be crippled underneath the anxiety of my AP Calculus grade because I wanted to learn all that math could offer me; I should be able to learn whatever I aspire to, but instead I have constantly been cruelly punished for sheerly loving learning.

Students deserve freedom to expand their minds, to not be scared away by the intense grading of difficult courses, or harsh judgment of future colleges or the looming doom of their future, which is ridden with past “mistakes” displayed on a permanent record.