Opening Statement

Look into this high school. Look for just a small moment and open your ears as classes change
for the second, third, or fourth time that day. You’ll hear students everywhere, discouraging each
other, saying things like “I want to be a lawyer, why am I in math?” or “Why am I stuck in
APUSH when I want to be a meteorologist?” and the most common, from students and the
bolder members of staff, “We’re never going to use this crap in real life.” Which begs the
question, why in the heck aren’t we preparing ourselves for “real life” with a curriculum that is
constantly holding us back, and keeping us from being ready for what’s coming, big hint, it’s the
workforce. To improve the school, we need to improve what goes on within it, and that means
cutting back on core classes that everyone has to take, and instead offering a wider range in
elective and class choices that will benefit a student for their career of choice. Job oriented class
schedules are truly the first step to improving our performance, and isn't our performance that
ranks the school?

Da Facts
● According to the Washington Post, the common core curriculum has a big gap in between
what the high schools have to teach and what colleges consider at college level.
Essentially, by following this type of curriculum, we aren’t even prepared for college,
much less the real world after. (Common core was implemented in 2009, none of us,
spare Ms. Price, should be able to remember much about school before that.)
● According to a survey taken in 2015, many teachers believe that these standards should
either be removed or modified.
● Allowing students wider choice and less core requirements shifts us into what we call
“student-based learning” don’t we agree that most learning should be focused on us
anyways? It’s not right now, but there are plenty of schools that are.
● A school in New Hampshire was able to increase its low test scores and graduation rates
exponentially once they made this shift- letting the students really take control. There’s
still teachers, moderators, and everything in a regular school. The difference, students can
pick their classes and how they want to learn.
● The majority of the things we learn that we’ll actually use are in elective classes-
surprise, the one level of classes we have complete control over. Right now I’m learning
to professionaly speak and argue in public, something I’ll use, compared to trig, which I
won’t.
● People have a tendency to put more effort into things they enjoy or are passionate about.

Closing statement:
In a world where we as students constantly complain about improvement this school
requires, the way to help us all is through fixing the main thing we’re here for: the
classes. It’s a proven point that shifting to student based learning is beneficial, and that
overall, the system we have right now just isn’t enough. We come here to learn, and our
next step needs to be learning how to prepare for our future career choices. To prepare for
your career, get started here.