LeliaThomas.Com

Yet Another Example of Why More Freedom of Choice Should Be Available to High School Students

Steve Knopper recently wrote over at Wired about his experience of re-taking the SAT (an end of high school/entrance to university standardized test in the United States), at the age of 38. One particular paragraph stands out to me:

Then came the math. I am a 38-year-old writer who uses Google to calculate percentages. Suddenly I was looking at algebra. Geometry. Functions. I stared at the booklet, trying mightily to recall Mr. Willis’ fifth-period class. The SAT deducts a quarter point for wrong answers, so I left 10 of the 20 questions blank.

There’s a reason Knopper forgot his algebra, geometry, trigonometry and calculus. It’s simply because, since high school, he hasn’t found a need to use it, and with the aid of computers, even his basic math skills have rarely been utilized. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this; it’s normal. You hear about it all the time, when people “return” to math or when adults sit down with teenagers to attempt to help them with their math homework. Ironically, though, society seems to think math is on the same level as reading, that you’re going to need it every day, so you better learn all of it you can, at a young age, so you’ll be prepared. If that were true, however, fewer people would be forgetting how to do it, I think.

When I ask people why they think beyond-basic math and/or accounting should be taught to every student in high school, I never seem to get a clear answer. Perhaps they’re struggling with the math of it. Some seem to think it’s tradition; they had to learn it (or suffer through it), so this generation should, too. Others deem it as vital for living in the real world. I then ask the question: When has math been a tradition, and when was the last time you used even the most basic algebra to get through the day? (Excepting mathematicians and scientists here, of course.) Most cannot provide good answers for that, either.

If this is the norm–that so little math, beyond the basics, is needed in adulthood to survive–why do we thrust every high school student, including the less mathematically-inclined and those who dislike the subject, into three or more years of equations, functions and algorithms?

To this day, I am frustrated by the high school education I received. One of my frustrations lies within advanced math requirements. In the area I was in, as is the case of many American high schools, one had to take algebra I and II, as well as geometry; those were the minimum requirements.

I’ve known since a very young age that math was not an interest of mine. I was excellent at the basic math (the math that I do, on very rare occasions, use as an adult), but algebra and geometry, for the most part, alluded me. This was partly due to the teachers I had and partly due to the fact that I hated the subject with a passion.

What came from my taking years of math I didn’t like and wasn’t superb at was a waste of time. I could have been studying in areas that were more interesting to me and more pertinent to the adult I wished to become: areas that involved more creativity, more writing and literature, more programming and technology. I’m sure I’m not the only person who is annoyed by this situation or a similar one. We can all agree that it’s better to start learning things as young as possible; it’s just we can’t seem to agree on what should be taught.

My belief is that, while the average high school student may not know what he wants to be, he most certainly is aware of what he doesn’t want to be. A person over the age of 12 has learned the basics and has been around the block just enough to know that he really dislikes some subject matter. It is my belief that we shouldn’t force him into those subjects. Doing so results in greater dislike of school, a wrong idea about learning, and quite possibly failure in the subjects that he plainly states he dislikes. Find the right kind of kid–one with a slight temper–and mix in a requirement to do a course that he knows is nowhere near his interests, and you’re likely to have a child that acts out in class and resents those who are trying to push him into something he’ll never use. Imagine trying to do the same thing to an adult, for years on end. When it happens, it isn’t pretty, is it?

If a teenager wants to take math and science, but wants to skip literature, she should be able to. She knows how to read. She can go back and read the classics at a later date, if she finds herself inclined to do so. Teenage students need teachers that wish to guide them in learning those things which excite them most. What they don’t need is to be held back under standardized requirements that do not always fit individual desires.

I suppose the only downside to giving high school students more freedom of choice, when it comes to their studies, would be that many would begin to gain knowledge and experience in the areas they would go into professionally in the future. Yeah, that’s the downside: it might mean they don’t have to spend four extra years in university learning what they didn’t have time to learn before. Perhaps pieces of paper from universities wouldn’t be needed so much, then.

Not such a bad thing, in my opinion.

Comments ordered from oldest to newest.

Mimzy

I’m in high school right now (and actually took the SAT this past Saturday), and I disagree with your opinion slightly. Truth is, many of my classmates have NO idea whatsoever what they want to do after high school. They don’t know what college they’re going to, or what they’ll study there, or what career they’ll choose afterwards. Most of these people also inevitably despise either English or math. I worry about what would happen if they were allowed not to take one of those subjects, and would later decide that their chosen occupation requires it.

Lelia

I hope you read the SAT better than you read my post here. I specifically said that I don’t think many teenagers know what they want to do, but I do think many know what they don’t want to do and can choose accordingly. Really, your comment just supports my statement all the more.

Also, what do you think would happen if they later decided to do something that they previously didn’t want to do? Nothing major, I assure you. Nothing life-shattering. Your ability to learn algebra doesn’t stop at age 15; your need for it, however, typically does. There are plenty of people who start from scratch with subject matter far past high school. You can learn anything, at any age, though you may very well learn faster when younger. But really, they aren’t starting from scratch. That’s what I’m pointing out. You have the basics by the time you get to high school. You can then choose what you want to learn, when, technically; it’s just the system won’t let you.

I think once you get into college (if you decide to go), move out from your family’s home and do some other things, you’ll see how silly it is for high school educational systems to tell you everything that you’re taught is vital for your mere survival. It’s not like that at all, really.

Choice is always preferable to blind requirement, especially blind standardized requirement. Your classmates could have spent more time pursuing some of their known interests, and growing in those, if they had been given the opportunity to do so; perhaps they would even know what they want to do after school, then. The current system promotes self-confusion, because no one is ever allowed to narrow down their classes to line up more with their interests.

P.S. - Countless people don’t know what they’re doing, where they’re going or what career they’re “meant” to be in, nor does that fact harm them; life is a journey, after all. Don’t let high school jargon about needing to know what you want to be “when you grow up” convince you of otherwise!

Bug

just a spelling mistake, in the 6th paragraph (or 7th depending how you count it), 3d line you say “alluded” i think you mean “eluded”, and no, i’m not an english geek.

as a high school freshman i do agree that we need more freedom to choose what classes to take, but the system being what it is has a pretty inflexible attitude towards that. they’re using proven methods of teaching, but not methods proven to teach what you really need to know to get along in life, like cooking for instance.

maybe of a bunch of people went out and interviewed thousands of 20-somethings, asking what skills they wish they’d learned in school, then maybe we’d have a curriculum that was actually worth teaching.