Over the past few years the government has been working hard to make school reforms. They’ve been trying to make school an equal opportunity for all and still show the prowess of the American school system. However, this hasn’t been working.

They replaced No Child Left Behind with Common Core a few years back to try and fix things, but it hasn’t been working in the way they hoped. If it’s at all possible they have made things much worse.

Common Core is a nightmare. It’s awful for both the students and the teachers. The problem with common core is that it’s forcing teachers to teach a test, not to actually teach course material. If a teacher doesn’t get a certain test score out of their students then they are at risk of being fired. Perfectly acceptable teachers are losing their jobs because of a government stipulation that has been put in place.

It also doesn’t prepare students for life after high school. They aren’t taught how to retain information. They are only taught how to regurgitate it. In the real world and in college you need to retain information because in your job you will need to know it.

Take for example my old high school. I went to Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School. It wasn’t the best, but it definitely wasn’t the worst school to go to. When I went there we still had finals and everything that you think of for a college preparation school. However, now there are no final exams at all. Students have to do these weird end of the year group projects to get that final grade.

They also don’t have try at the tests that they take. If you take a test and you get lower than a C on it then you are forced to retake it until you have at least a C on that test. This is the grade they will keep. This takes away all competitive aspects of the schooling system and it cheapens the valedictorian system. Yeah sure a kid might have a 3.0 GPA but did they really earn it or is it just the result of a school coddling their students?

Most of all the government just needs to step back from the educational system. I believe it’s a good thing that they are trying to help – if they even are trying to help – but right now they aren’t helping anyone. They are simply worried about their test scores and how to get numbers to show that America is the best. But how can America be shown as the best when we have implemented a system in which you can’t fail? To me that doesn’t show superiority but mediocrity. We need to stop looking for numbers and statistics and put our hearts back into the classroom. Children are not numbers; they are the future of this country. If they are not taught properly then our future is doomed by circumstances they could not control.