How to Make School Great Again

How do we make school great again? Learn what my son, a senior in a public high school, thinks about this subject in this guest post.

How to Make School Great Again

My middle son Ethan is a senior in his local public high school with a population of around 2,000 students. He wrote an essay for his ELA class final which is being shared as an example in all English classes at his school. Many students have told him this is exactly what they think needs to change in the U.S. public school system. I want to give him a larger platform on my website to share these ideas far and wide. Here is his original essay edited for grammar and clarity, with some bold type added for emphasis.

Make School Great Again

By Ethan Geringer 

Let’s start by asking a few questions…Why was school started? What is the purpose of school?

The answer to these questions is the preparation for democratic citizenship. All the historical examples of education systems being started were to prepare students for the life ahead of them. Is this what the primary education system still does today? In my opinion, it does not. Several things need to be fixed with the current system. 

There is probably no perfect way to educate people in masses, simply because of conflicting learning styles, a nationwide parenting crisis, and many other factors. However, I am going to share a few reforms I believe could make the school system better. 

I am going to break this down into five main topics and then explain each topic deeper throughout this essay. 

Schools Do Not Adequately Prepare Students for the Real World Anymore

Earlier I said that school was invented to prepare students for the real world, and it did. But the current education system is almost 200 years old. What if everything else in the U.S. were to be the same as it was 200 years ago? Not everyone would even be allowed into schools! 

The main problem with it being so outdated is that it prepares students for being factory workers and nuclear family members. But the rest of the country has changed so much, and the school system has not been changed aside from minor tweaks for almost the last 150 years when schools were no longer segregated. 

The U.S. is not looking for factory workers like it was years ago during industrialization. The U.S. is a post-industrialized society, which means it is moving away from manufacturing and is rather moving towards a service-based economy. The problem is that the school system is still set up to produce individuals to succeed in an industrial society. Times have changed.

 This could all be fixed by a new school system. My idea is to have a year-round school year, with days from 7:00 a.m to 11:00 a.m. Then once individuals are of working age, they can work eight-hour days on school days. This would better prepare them for longer working hours once out of high school and should instill a better work ethic in students. It would also allow for job opportunities that are not available due to getting out of school at the standard 3:00 p.m. dismissal time. 

School being year-round should help prevent students from getting into a slump after a long summer break. It would keep them in a school mindset all year long. It should help students retain everything that they learn since they do not randomly have three months off every year to forget everything. 

Schools should make learning unique to each student so that they can be placed on the most successful path for their future, and so they can understand it and learn everything how they enjoy learning and at their pace. High school should be more like college, where you still have a couple of core classes, but everything else you are learning about is your major, or at least courses that you want to take, boosting student engagement.  

These changes would be very hard to make since the education system is decentralized. This means states control education rather than the national government, so each state can set the standard for education on its terms. But if enough students, teachers, and parents pushed for change, a national government law could rule supreme over the state legislature. 

Schools Are Too Internally Focused

I believe some subjects need to become required courses that are only available at certain schools and can only be taught by certain teachers. First, I believe that at least a 100-level psychology class should be required for graduation. Teenager’s brains are complex and they are not even finished growing. There is also a very deep connection between a healthy mind and a healthy body. Teenagers should learn more about how the brain works and how to take care of it. They also need to learn how to healthfully handle stressful situations that could occur throughout high school while gaining a better overall understanding of psychology. Psychology is a more service-related subject as opposed to an industrial-related subject so it is relevant for today. 

I also strongly believe that there should be a required, year-long course surrounding geopolitics. Geopolitics by definition is politics, especially international relations, as influenced by geographical factors. A geopolitical course would do more than any other class what schools were founded to do, which is create democratic citizens. Being able to have a geopolitical understanding of topics helps take any kind of American bias that is taught in every other political and historical course that is offered K-12th grade. 

A geopolitical view allows individuals to focus on political power linked to geographic space, in particular, territorial waters and land territory in correlation with diplomatic history. This allows for seeing real-time world events and being able to see how it is going to affect the rest of the world which is more interconnected than ever. A geopolitical course would also educate students on where geopolitical hotspots are in the world, so they can stay up to date and be able to grasp and comprehend what is happening somewhere else in the world with a very deep understanding. 

An honorable mention for my proposal is a sociology class, as it would do the same thing as a geo-political course without as much detail. All classes that were mentioned would fit the narrative of a post-industrial society and replace old courses that are no longer needed to produce workers for an industrial society. 

Overteaching Subjects

Let’s suppose you just got hired by a construction company, similar to starting high school. You are new to the job so you essentially do what you are told for a few days, maybe weeks. But, your trainer gives you the same task day after day, which is to sweep the floor after construction is done. What your trainer does not understand is that you are much past sweeping the floor and cleaning up after other people. In actuality, you are a very talented framer, and you could frame an entire building in one day. But there is nothing you can do about this. You just have to keep sweeping every day until you get promoted to the next job. 

That is what high school can feel like at some times. Many courses are taken year after year, and the same thing is taught year after year, yet the subject matter does not get any harder. I believe that students should be able to test out of subjects, or at least be placed in a level that would give students the ability to learn something new. This would make school more enjoyable for everyone because then students who need help can get help. Students that would not gain anything from going to a course would not waste their time. 

Teachers Are Overworked and Underpaid

This might not sound like a school problem at first. We hear things like, “That’s the teachers’ fault” or “They shouldn’t have become a teacher then.” But, better, happier, and more motivated teachers should in theory produce better students, grades, etc. 

Here is the truth: Teachers are vastly more than just teachers now. Changing roles cause teachers to become therapists, babysitters, mentors, and more. Another truth is that students have arguably gotten harder to teach due to various factors, making teachers’ jobs more difficult. 

The second part of the truth is that teachers are criminally underpaid. The amount of stress and every day “crap” teachers have to put up with is considerable, and their salaries don’t even keep up with inflation. If there is a state-wide teacher shortage, then it should be relatively easy to tell something is wrong. At the end of the day, if every teacher was making more, and liked their job more, they would have higher motivation to teach “better.”  

Teenage Mental Health Crisis

I believe this problem piggybacks off of the problems previously mentioned in this essay. It is no secret there is a mental health crisis, especially among teens nationwide. I believe school plays a large part in this. School creates stress for many individuals whether it is due to grades, sports, or problems arising from being stuck there eight hours a day. If all the previous problems were solved whether it be through my suggestions or any other fixes, mental health would be better among teens. If school is less stressful, students will be less stressed. Less stressed students are in theory better students. Stress can affect one’s ability to learn, so if schools were rid of stress, they would be much better places overall in general. 

To sum everything up, school is outdated. There are quite a few problems that need to be addressed that seem to be completely ignored. Students, teachers, and parents all need to combine to push for change to Make School Great Again!

My Thoughts on How to Make School Great Again

When I was a senior in high school, I co-wrote an editorial piece for the school newspaper on year-round school based on what my cousins experienced. It wasn’t a popular idea back in 1994-1995, yet my cousins truly benefited from this setup in their private school. I think this is a great idea for today’s world which has dramatically changed.

My daughter is in online school through Missouri Virtual Academy. She is active for at most three hours per day, then she works on her own small business at home for the remaining time. She loves not having to get up so early and be stuck at school for a full eight-hour period. However, a huge number of her fellow online school students struggle to turn in their assignments on time. I believe students like them would benefit from the model Ethan proposed because they likely need more supervision. A 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in-person school system would provide this option.

When Ethan and I talked about his essay, he asked if it even mattered because nothing ever changes. However, I told him about an initiative beginning in our community called South Side Farms. This farm is being funded by many different people and businesses to give some of our most economically challenged residents new opportunities, including better housing. The interim director toured similar projects across the Midwest before getting this project started here. This Christmas Eve, part of our church’s donation will go directly to fund a well digging project for the farm, so there is much local interest in supporting this big initiative.

I told Ethan that if change is possible in that area, changes like he proposed could also be possible not just right here in southeast Missouri, but in other schools around the U.S. That’s why I wanted to share his ideas with people far and wide, so you can consider what students are saying they want to change. Students’ voices are so important in the goal to make school great again, and I’m glad to get the conversation rolling on this post.

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