We have all noticed the same trend in education. The amount of information that we have to teach just compiles and compounds as our knowledge of the universe increases. Recently in Ap Bio we have spent a large amount of time, about three months, on the subject of genetics and evolution, comparitively newborn fields of study. The amount of new knowledge we have on the subject of physics, a class covering three years, is growing as I type this blog post. The recent discovery of quarks and the idea of dark matter has transformed the field. If there is this vast new amount of information in every field of study, why are we not lengthening the amount of years we devote to our education?
We are no longer in a time where people only live to the age of 50. Our lifespans are growing at such a rate that I can easily envision myself living for longer than a century. This has made the amount of years we educate ourselves become proportionally less and less. As a junior in high school, I can tell you that the rush to absorb all of the information we will need for our entire lives and future careers is a daunting one. I feel pressed to take every single course available otherwise I will be missing out on vital information.
It is this pressure that has made me realize that we need at least one more year of high school. I firmly believe that no ambitious high school student is ever able to take all the classes that he desires.We need an extra year to reach out and explore every field that we are interested in. We do not have enough time in high school to explore all of the opportunities. Registering for my classes next year has been a bevy of trade-offs. I want to participate in and learn so many things, but there is not enough time for it. This pressure has been laid onto us so hard that we now have eighth-graders pushing to take high-school classes in a vain attempt to cover it all.
This year alone I had to pass out on jazz and chamber choir, which hurt so much to sacrifice. I couldn't take AP Psych or APES like I wanted to, and I probably won't be able to next year either. I would love to take part in the philosophy or acting class but there is no time. I want to do all sorts of sports and extracurriculars like debate or clubs that go out and volunteer but there is simply not enough time in the scant four years we are given.
Some may say that this is simply due to a lack of focus or initiative on the part of the students, and that we simply slack off. I stand as a testament to that. I have spent all day today slaving over AP homework, and will continue to. All for the love of learning and education, and yet I still am not able to find time to do all the things I love. That doesn't even take into account all the missing social life that I am sacrificing for school. Every teacher seems to assume that we only have to do work for their class and therefore an hour a day isn't that hard. When seven teachers want an hour a day, and you still have speech, showchoir and sports until seven pm. You can see how the time evaporates extremely quickly.
I think an extra year of highschool, would be beneficial to every student. We would be able to explore more options before we commit our lives to a certain career. We would be able to complete more cohesive, polished, and comprehensive work instead of the scrambled attempts at completion that we are currently locked into. I think the sheer inability to cover it all is what causes some kids to just give up and not care anymore. I've heard honor students talking about how useless it is to try and do it all. We need a change, and I think a little bit of time is all we need. Thanks for reading
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