Quality Over Quantity by George

Quality Over Quantity by George - July 2022 Scholarship Essay

Every day, I go to school, I learn some new material, and I receive a homework assignment. A week or two goes by, then I take a test. I get my grade and then we move on to the next subject, often never repeating or using that material again until the final exam. Education needs to stop teaching for tests. It needs to start teaching for knowledge.

The American education system is built so that at the end of the year each school is able to show how well their students performed on state tests. This makes the school look better and sometimes receive more funding. This means that the teachers are forced to speed teach information just so their students will do well on the next test. Then, as soon as that test is done, the process starts over.

The problem with this speedy way of education is that it leaves students not only stressed and overworked, but it also makes it very difficult to store any information in long term memory. Just this past year, during my junior year of high school, I was made to learn well over one hundred different equations between my precalculus class and my physics class. And, I wasn’t even in the honors courses! Today, I remember next to none of those equations that just a few months ago were practically seared into my brain.

Now, this isn’t to say I didn’t learn anything in those classes. I learned important concepts that I know I will use in my life. But when I look at everything that I only vaguely remember or no longer recognize at all, I can’t help but feel that a great loss has occurred. For all my efforts, and for all my teachers' efforts, I really only learned a fraction of the knowledge available. If my teachers had been allowed to slow the rate at which they had to give us new concepts, then I know I would have retained more.

Ten years from now, I hope those who run our national education system are able to solve this problem. In the twenty-first century, we’ve discovered so much and there is incredible knowledge that can be passed onto the next generation of young scholars, especially in the fields of mathematics and science. However, we must curb our hubris in thinking that young people can comprehend so much in so little time. In the future, if we slow down the rate at which we teach new information, and maybe even teach a little less quantity, then perhaps the quality of our education will be greatly improved.