School. That dreaded monster that no one wants to go to. (Well, actually, I don't mind it except the ridiculous homework load and bad, boring teachers.) Education is a good thing, but the system is getting out of hand, especially in high school. Especially junior year (my life right now). What I don't get is how high schools and colleges expect us to take a billion AP classes, do a billion extracurriculars (and hold leadership positions in every one of those extracurriculars), do hundreds of hours of community service, and on the side apply for scholarships, maybe work a little, participate in sports, and still be sane. They wonder at the fact that students are more stressed than ever. Hmm. Maybe it's because colleges only care about the number of AP classes we take. I mean, AP classes used to be for students who were really interested in those subjects. Nowadays, people take them for the sake of taking them. (I'm partially guilty of that as well, so don't think I'm bashing anyone.) Take my school's AP English class, for example. A few years earlier, only students who were interested and excellent at English took the class. Now, about 50% of the senior class takes it, and there are a lot of people who struggle. Colleges want students to "challenge" themselves, but that only pushes us to take classes we won't do well in. So now it's either take APs and overload yourself because teachers are trying to make them as hard as possible to deter people from taking them unless they really are interested (or take watered-down AP classes that don't really prepare you for college), or not take that many and look like you're being a slacker. It's a lose-lose situation either way you look at it if you want to get into a competitive college.
I suppose it's not completely higher education's fault. They have to draw the line somewhere, and as the population of the country continues to grow, they have to draw that line tighter and tighter in order to continue with the same level of excellence. But if that causes one to place their worth on their academic achievement, and then fail in college to get straight A's (gaspers) and commit suicide because they've lost their worth, is it really worth it? (Oh, those Cornell students.) It's frustrating to have to take all these standardized tests (especially the SATs) knowing that after you get into college, your scores are worthless. No one cares about SATs after the fact, yet we still have to waste money to take them. (And the cost for AP tests? Oh, my goodness. Why does the College Board need all that money??) Yet at this moment in time, my life veritably swings by the hinges of these tests.
It's a vicious cycle, education. No wonder academic also means having no practical or useful significance.
Quizzy Fact of the Post: Getting an abortion increases the risk of getting breast cancer. (I didn't learn this until this week. =O)
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I am a tenth grader, and all year we have been taking those ACT s and those SAT s. I don't understand why we must take them all they do is to see what your good in and stuff. last week in school we had a thing were we go and sit down and they talk about what we need to get into colleges. to get into some universities we need 3 years of any foreign language. whats the deal with that? i mean why cant the people who are actully going to use that foreign language only do it. see this i the way i see it, is that the kids that are really going to go into something should learn that subject. for example: i like science but i have no use for it for what I'm going into. so why is it that i need to know that a glacier, lets say moves a foot a year. what am i supposed to do with that knowledge, nothing. so tell me why is it we must take these test and these subjects to get into colleges or anything.
I am a freshman in college, so I recently got done with that stage in my life. The sad thing is that even when you get to college, the rush does not stop. I know that my school is constantly telling me about how I still have to do this and that if I want to get a good job... you are right when you say it is a vicious cycle.
Although I still wake up all the time wondering if it is worth it, I think in the end, when I am older, I will appreciate my hard work more. But make sure that you don't get overly stressed during the period in which you are applying for college, I got lost way to many times and I wish I took more steps back to look at how crazy I had gotten and to keep myself grounded. If you schedule well and plan ahead, you should get through just fine!
good luck!