I believe this article addresses many issues that surround high school students each year. Many struggle to find good schools that will suit their requirements for their ideal institution. Many try extremely hard during their senior years to improve their GPA and participate in many extra curricular activities. There are countless children who lose their sight for the future by focusing too much on their academic achievements, that when they get to college, some didn’t know what to major in. Certain necessities such as these should be thought of before hand, and it is very important for a student to understand what their priorities are and how to address them in an organized fashion. I think that the summer camps are also very influential for many students, but in more ways than one they can be ineffective. Certain children are not meant for the big city, even if their parents are organizing and leading a fortune-five hundred company. Certain kids are not able to express their true feelings because they feel trapped by their parents who may pressure them to commit themselves to things they don’t appreciate. “Moreover (as documented by a great deal of research), because students are doing the work they do in and out of school for the wrong reasons; not because they are interested in learning -- the intense competition undermines their motivation to continue to learn for the sake of gaining understanding.” As analyzed by this reporter, he brings about the difficult decisions and actions that children must make or do to impress their parents, and in today’s society, it is very high because of the expectations. I mean pre-schools that are established to breed excellence is a little bizarre in my opinion, because many intelligent and successful human beings have started at the lowest of all education systems. Personally, it is the student that makes the student, not the school.
David, I agree with your point regarding the college admissions process mainly because it is relatable to the time in our lives at this moment. Like the article and you discuss, students tend to chose classes where they know they will succeed, rather than those they may be interested in or could learn something new. In this instance, they sacrifice taking a risk and learning/expanding their intellect for a simple way to pass, or to look best on paper. We try so hard to improve our GPA to get into these ‘big name’ schools that we believe we will prosper in, but will we really? Maybe Harvard isn’t a match for us. I believe a student can succeed and reach their potential in any school, no matter the name, if they make the best and put effort towards it. Instead, we work towards ‘putting our best foot forward’ by stressing, beefing up our resumes, joining pointless clubs to look ‘well rounded’, and taking classes that we’ll easily pass to boost our GPA. We’ve lost sight of learning and instead have become hungry and obsessed with bettering ourselves, but not in the way we should be. We should be bettering ourselves by taking new classes that will actually teach us something worthwhile, that may, God forbid, challenge us. We should spend our time doing things we feel shape us, not aimlessly walking around a nursing home pretending we are being helpful. The article discusses that competition undermines a student for who they are, and I think this is very true. Overall, I agree when you say it is the student that makes the student, not the school.
Posted by: Amanda Rigby | 04/13/2011 at 11:06 AM