My Observation on the Condition of the Degeneration of the Current Generation's Education

This is probably invalid as a merit-able post, as it is my response to an assigned question, but I felt too proud of my response and involved with the topic to ignore it as a blog post. I was asked to rate my total education on a scale of one to ten and explain. So:

"Five.
 ***NOTE*** Many in my class cited schools from different cities and even different states. In comparison, they have nothing on my international experiences. However, this rating reflects only the American education I have experienced. Anyways...

My cynicism prompted me to rate the education I have received (or have failed to receive) relatively low. Throughout my school years, it seems I have been mostly assigned to non-passionate teachers, teachers who do not try. The function of a teacher is not to simply lecture, assign problems, and assess our participation, but rather to motivate, guide, and challenge our intellectual capacities. I have come across too many teachers who have this misconception and it reflects on my rating. Said teachers shun the student for not qualifying as a student and continue without qualifying as a teacher.

Reading through other students' responses, I have found some respectable arguments. Both Arevik Martirosyan and Juan Montes have cited the school curriculum as flaws of the education system. Their arguments are, "They just make us learn things that we aren’t really going to use in the real world or when we get our own job", and "Yes, I could have taken more AP classes, but there were none that appealed to what I wanted to do later in life. Why would I need to take AP literature if I want to become a nurse?" However, this is to miss the overall point of the curriculum, to make students think. AP Literature may not apply to most careers, but thinking applies to most aspects of life. Math trains our problem solving capabilities. Science teaches us to question how things works. History teaches us to question authority. English teaches us rhetoric and to question why something was said or written that way. Questions lead to answers and answers improve our life, our community, our society, our nation, our world. (<b>Asyndeton</b>, look it up.)

If education does not reach its full potential, how can the world? It all starts in the classroom: motivate, educate, guide, and assess our thinking capabilities. Not necessarily in that order."