Have we lost sight of true learning?

“I don’t want to go to school.” This phrase is commonly uttered by numerous students worldwide. Schools were meant to be a place for motivated learners to obtain education and expand their knowledge. Schools were meant to be a place that increases students’ interest in the world of wonder surrounding them. Schools were meant to be an environment for students that is healthy and encouraging. With the emergence of a new economic system–global and capitalist in nature–schools are no longer what they were meant to be. Eagerness to learn has been replaced with anxiety about academic achievements. Twinkling curious eyes and energetic attitudes have been replaced by hollow stares and sullen expressions. Student experiences in school are becoming increasingly negative over time because there is more homework, higher expectations and greater pressure from parents, and a stifling academic standardization that limits student expression.

It is quiet, the silence filled only by the soft hum of the computer, the clicking of the mouse, and the tapping of fingers on the keyboard. Words, phrases, and sentences form as the author slowly develops the abstract ideas in her mind into a coherent essay. She looks at the tiny clock at the bottom right corner of her computer screen; it is 3:07 A.M., very early in the morning indeed. Her eyelids droop, no longer able to fight sleepiness and exhaustion. She feels that she could collapse any moment. But I must finish this now, she thinks, and then proceeds with her typing. Forty minutes later, she finally finishes her work, the conventions and overall fluency of which she does not bother checking.  She is not proud of it, but at least she is done with the assignment. Satisfied, she drags her fatigued self to her ever-so-comfortable bed.

This scenario is likely relevant, to some degree, for almost every student. Stacks of unfinished homework assignments–a representation that should only appear in cartoons–are becoming the new reality for students. Homework was originally meant to assist pupils in understanding a concept taught in class; however in recent years, the workload has become overwhelming for most students, contributing to their growing lethargy and debility. Ever since the Space Race of the 1950s, nations have felt the need to adopt a more rigorous education system so that they could outperform competing countries. As a result, homework has gradually increased and continues to do so even today. The suggested amount of homework for high school students is around 2 hours per night. Yet, a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education shows that students in high-performing Californian high schools–both private and public–have “an average of 3.1 hours of homework a night.” This number exceeds the advised time, but most educators and parents do not see the issue. The majority of parents who are against decreasing the homework load argue that students need a “large quantity of homework to prepare them for…AP classes in high school and…Harvard.” Some teachers believe that it will “prepare students for work-related tasks” because practicing homework will help them “develop a work ethic”, forgetting that the initial purpose of homework is to learn and not to practice “being a worker.” Schools of all kinds commit to the “idea of homework”, embracing the mentality that there should be homework every night, even if it may not be truly helpful to the students. However justified, the large quantity leaves students mentally and physically in poor health. For instance, 38% of students in grades seven through twelve admit that they are “often [or] very often stressed out by their homework.” Homework has also been shown to cause fatigue, “negative attitudes about learning”, and a lack of “leisure time” for students. These factors contribute immensely to the negative experiences of high school students in school. They want to have time to enjoy outdoor activities as much as students from previous generations and to socialize with their friends. Instead, they find themselves trapped at home in front of a desk, rushing to complete all their assignments by the deadlines. High school students have become familiar with the weary expressions on their classmates’ faces. One glance is all it takes to know the source of their exhaustion, which much of the time is caused by staying up late to do homework. At school, “homework” significantly occupies student’ minds as they ponder over the question of how much time the night’s homework will take and when they might finally go to sleep. In such ways, homework has lost its original intention of helping students review concepts taught in class and engaging them in learning. It has become a literal embodiment of pain and misery among many, enhancing not the “joy of education” but rather the “stress of completion”.

In addition to the immense workload, students are also the “victims” of high expectations and pressure from their parents who yearn for their success in life, causing unhealthy levels of stress that muddies students’ moral values and depletes their passion for learning. Parents instill expectations in children because their academic performance is an assessment of their “ability to supervise and invest in [their children’s] future” and to judge whether or not they are successful as parents. They expect their children to achieve top scores in subjects and eventually enter a prestigious university in order to get a high-paying job afterward. However, parents’ pressure on students has created stress levels “so high that some educators regard it as a health epidemic.” Especially in Asian cultures, high-schoolers stress over every graded assignment. One small mistake, in their parents’ opinion, might earn them an unacceptable grade. One small mistake might prevent them from getting into Harvard. One small mistake might lead to their utter failure. To get higher grades and satisfy their parents, many students believe that “they are forced to do whatever they need….[to] stay ahead of the game,” even when grave and permanent consequences, such as getting a zero or expelled from school, may result from the risky undertakings of academic dishonesty or other misconduct.  Grades become more important than moral values–like integrity–to both students and their parents. In the service of attaining a 4.0 GPA or 1600 on the SAT, students may sometimes disregard their morals by cheating on assignments, which in the end only harms themselves. The idea that “as long as I get high grades, nothing else matters” is deeply engraved in their minds, and some forget that moral principles are equally if not more important. To them, studying for a test or project is more important than being a “good” person because test grades, not kindness, will secure their success. To them, establishing an outstanding academic profile should be prioritized over comprehending the topic itself because their parents suggest or say so. Student interest in school has deteriorated. Few truly care about anything not directly tied to their transcripts. Few truly care about moral codes that would only hinder their academic “progress”. Today, high-schoolers face parental expectations and pressures that shape their belief that their education is only a tool for college applications, extinguishing their passion for true learning.

“Our school offers 26 accelerated and advanced placement (AP) courses and 22 additional electives, all of which enhance our students’ characters and interests.” Secondary schools often boast of their diverse courses, and students swarm to these classes zealously, trying to take the most challenging or popular ones the school has to offer. However, this supposedly “increased” diversity in curriculum only strengthens academic standardization, which may limit students’ actual individuality and expression.  In the 2016-2017 school year, 2,741,426 students took AP courses worldwide, marking the glorious popularity of these extraordinary classes. The primary motivation behind such fervor, though, is to polish one’s academic profile and to differentiate oneself from others when applying for universities. More course choices only signify that there are more opportunities for students to stand out from their peers. In the 21^st century, that is a necessity for admission to highly regarded universities, which want only students who took more challenging courses and excelled in high school. These courses reflect upon the “focus on academic outcomes” in the current education system because, for the most part, they are shaped around a framework focusing on grade-based examinations. Success in school becomes narrowly defined by high performance on standardized tests. A high schooler’s main goal becomes not to gain interest in the subject nor to understand it fully for self-enrichment—but rather to get a perfect score on the exam and showcase their exceptionalism. As they strive for the best results in the most difficult courses, whether AP or honors, they lose their individual personalities, character, and interests. Numerous adolescents take certain courses only because “they look good on their transcripts”. Rather than for the love of learning, studying in high school equates more to competition through excelling in high-level (or “elite”) courses. Students are no longer persons of character; some become “test-taking machines” who merely cycle endlessly between “test-prepping” and “test-taking” in school. Interest in learning does not dictate their actions, test scores do.

Many may say that there has always been pressure put on students by their parents and schools. Some amount of pressure is certainly essential for student growth; however, this pressure has increased exponentially as an outcome of the shift in the economic system, which is now characterized by a world capitalism “restructure[ed] through globalization over the past few decades.” In this system, the pool of applicants is greater than ever before as individuals have to compete with people from across the globe for a job position. Within a nation, the conditions are not optimistic either. The unemployment rate in America was 22.6% in April 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics; among other reasons, the “disparity between the skills employers want and those applicants have” is accountable for the current situation. Moreover, the “labor force is getting older”, and the job creation rate is slowing down, reducing career opportunities and increasing competition. When the previous generation went to school, the belief was that “if you worked hard and did well and got a college degree[,] you would have a job.” The current economic circumstances, created by a mixture of local and global factors, cannot promise this; the situation seems to be that even if a student graduates, he or she is not guaranteed an ideal job. With employers becoming more selective, this phenomenon will only intensify and worsen. There are far too many people competing for far too few jobs. In response to such scarcity, parents place more pressure on their children to increase their possibility of admission into a renowned university, which will give them the appropriate skills for entering a prosperous company. When faced with these hardships, high school students adopt a belief that “if they don’t get into a high-profile college, their life is ‘ruined.'” Afraid and traumatized, high schoolers do everything their parents ask them to do so that they will not have to live the rest of their lives with pain and regret. Immense pressure and fear control the daily lives of students at school; negativity permeates their educational experiences.

High school students should be self-motivated to go to school with a positive attitude and a willingness to learn. High schoolers should be passionate about their interests. Now, students are finding those things more difficult than ever before. The only things that await them now are piles of incomplete assignments, pressing project deadlines, examinations in difficult classes, and the mounting achievement expectations. Their schools promote diversity, happiness, curiosity, and integrity among students, yet, in reality, those are the very concepts they discourage in practice. When the fire for knowledge burns out, education has utterly lost its purpose, and schools have failed their students.

Featured Image – featuring the SMIC Private School’s Middle and High School campus Courtesy of SMIC Private School