This I Believe

       I may or may not have gone over by 75 words, but this is what happens when I get all riled up.

             It is no secret that America is having a rough time with Education and the role of government in it.  And in no way am I informed on every issue and every stance that exists; however, through my own observation, I have noticed that there seems to be a lack of confidence in our educational system and an overall distrust of schools.  But it is my belief that teaching is among the most noble and rewarding jobs to pursue.  And it’s hard as a college freshman to choose a career that appears to be going through quite the ringer.

            I believe that education, next to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is a constitutional right to Americans.  No child should be denied an education based on their social status, gender, ethnicity, race etc.  I consider myself a humanist, in that I wish to progress the complexity and intellectual superiority of humans, regardless of what they believe.  And with that concept, uneducated societies, or societies where education comes at a high cost or is restricted to certain groups, they are only holding their human potential back. 

            Yet, I believe that America is a ridiculous middle ground to my beliefs.  The “American Dream” is a fanciful idea of living your life how you want it, and I feel that numerous success stories of poor kids turned basketball stars and rappers are only instigating the children of today to lose interest in education and pursue wild, unreachable goals.  If only their efforts to become famous could be turned into efforts in academics, then we would see more mathematicians, more physicists, and more writers.  But instead, we see an educational system directly intertwined with money and taxes, and somehow America lost sight of how important education is.

            If only we could neutralize our educational system, then we would not have such terrible scores.  But parents and politicians are quick to blame teachers for our failing system; that teachers are too easily given their jobs and are about as effective as babysitters.  But this distrust of teachers is avoiding the reality; that our culture doesn’t promote learning!  There are so many factors that go into the efficiency of a classroom.  And basing the future of our nation on standardized tests and dropout rates do not measure the teacher!  They measure how much students care.  And the fact is: they don’t.  I believe that these indicators are being twisted to justify collapsing the federal educational system and leaving local and state governments to fend for themselves.  Of all the things to set free, our nation chooses education. 

            But every child has the capability to learn; I know this.  I took PSYC101.  But it does not matter how any one teacher teaches, or how any one school gets an x amount of money from the government.  The true solution to the problem of education in our country is keeping our children optimistic about learning.  Showing them that education has intrinsic value, showing them that it’s okay to learn more than just to pass the next proficiency test is the ultimate goal.  My goal as a future physics teacher is to inspire the next generation to be interested in the science that invented their cell phones, their computers, their cars.  To show them that science is okay, that science is our future.  America is holding us back, and I won’t stand for it.  This I believe.