Greece

Greece

Monday, May 9, 2011

Why Can't the School System be Like the "Good Old Days"?


-Some people say that the school system is much more lenient than that of this generation's predecessors, but this has repeatedly been found to be untrue. The past generations tell their offspring that teachers were accustomed to taking "the strap" to their pupils, but who can think of a better punishment than being forced to sit through half an hour of biology notes?

-Students of the Canadian school system are frequently assaulted by copious amounts of homework, threatening to drain the fluid from their brains slowly like gas being siphoned from a car engine. Observations have been made of students in libraries who are being distracted from spilling the contents of their mind into their cell phones by the ominous presence of unfinished fill-in-the-blank history notes. The school system has elevated into a state of panic and stress which is unheard of in past generations. In the 1960's, students didn't have to worry about their friends contacting them with a myriad of predicaments, forced to listen to their afflictions via text. Consequently, their stress levels were significantly reduced compared to modern day teens. Now, in modern day society, students cannot have to luxury of ensconcing themselves in their three math problems without being plagued by distractions. And they have only one thing to blame for their distractions: the complexity of the current school system. Who, in the real world, uses trivial mathematical equations such as quadratic functions in grocery stores to assign a number to a bundle of four carrots? "Well, since 'Y' equals four times 'X' squared minus seven, this comes to five dollars and seventeen cents." This will soon be a common conversation between all purveyors of food and their customers if something doesn't change in the school system. Teachers assign homework maliciously to students just so that they have something to do on their weekend. Students in past generations would never have had to do that.

-As well as the frequent stress of extra, unnecessary homework, the stress of having to study a second time for a test contributes to the overall sense of oppression in the Canadian school system. Why on Earth would anyone want to study twice for two separate tests on the same subject? The implication of the redo policy immediately invoked that level of stress in students. In the "good old days", this would never have been a problem. A test was written once and a mark was stamped on the paper in red ink, dictating the student's success rate. The student would accept this with a fleeting glance at the letter grade at the top of the paper and stow it away in their binder. Now, teens have a mark written on their test along with an array of comments. A soft suggestion from the teacher catapults the pupil into another studying session, sometimes lasting as long as an entire hour. This horrible sequence of events culminates in getting another mark on a new test, this time taken properly into consideration. Students have to be put through this process twice instead of once as their ancestors did.

-But there is yet another point that ignites teens' stress levels to terminal quantities: the no zero policy. Now imagine this: an English assignment is given to a student with a due date, perhaps, in three days after the weekend. Now this particular student has made plans with his friend to hang out watching re-runs of "Seinfeld" while texting his other friend, disclosing what he is doing and his location on a regular basis. This student does not have time to engage in the arduous task of focusing on the English assignment without distraction so he will come to a sudden realization: he already has a fine job at a local fast food joint. Why bother doing something when it is unnecessary? This luxury would be an excellent option but, however, the no zero policy denies that right. Instead, the slightly miffed teacher will subtly assign the student to the "homework room" to get the assignment done, making the student forfeit lunches to do the homework the student didn't do on purpose. Now that is a peculiar sense of reasoning.

-The Canadian school system really does need to make some changes and ensure that progress is moving to ensure that students get an easier and much less stressful education. Society foresees a day where unnecessary homework, redoes, and the zero policy is but a faint whisper from the past. The future will hold days of school work that ease students calmly into the soothing and relaxing atmosphere university life and then the sheer bliss of the workplace.

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