Our Schools Need Help by Lilith

Our Schools Need Help by Lilith - July 2022 Scholarship Essay

The current state of the American education system is, as most people at this point would agree, a mess. Keeping teachers in classrooms when they are constantly overworked and underpaid, providing a thorough curriculum that educates students about the truth of the country they are living in, and accessing higher education without a crippling legacy of debt are all becoming more of a challenge. A major overhaul of how we view schools and their importance in society is needed now more than ever, and I hope that it can occur within the next ten years.
Teachers in the American public school system have been fighting for years to receive proper compensation and better working conditions. Recently, I found out that my high school drama teacher was quitting due to high stress levels and severe underfunding of the arts. I was privileged enough to attend a well-funded high school and learn from a teacher who has a true passion and enthusiasm for theater. If current conditions were enough to destroy her desire to work with the program, then it’s no surprise to me that teachers everywhere are resigning for the same reasons. In the next ten years, I hope to see schools properly compensate teachers, both in pay and in benefits, and to fund all programs fairly. It is time for the underfunding of the arts to stop. When people are motivated to become teachers again, class sizes will go down, working conditions for teachers will improve, and students will benefit from the increased quality of education overall.
Certain parts of school curriculum, mainly in elementary schools, have become highly controversial topics in recent months. Things like sex education, racial injustice, and LGBTQ+ topics have been banned or heavily restricted in classrooms due to assumptions and misinterpretations of what teaching these subjects would actually entail. Over the next ten years, I hope that these topics will become less controversial as younger generations become more educated on them. Being honest about American history will strengthen children’s grasp on reality and empathy for each other. Teaching them age-appropriate and medically accurate information about their own bodies will make them feel more confident in themselves and in their bodily autonomy, which is now more important than ever. Acknowledging the social construct of gender and the spectrum of sexuality will increase children’s knowledge of themselves and empathy for others. Transgender children and children of same-sex couples won’t feel alone anymore. If all of this improves, the American education system will truly achieve its goal of preparing people for the reality of the world around them.
It is well-known now that pursuing higher education in America has become inaccessible to many people. Rising tuition, rising loan rates, and stagnant wages have combined to create a perfect storm of lifelong debt for the average American after college. Erasing a small portion of existing student loan debt is not enough. Regulations need to be put in place to ensure that tuition costs stop inflating faster than what workers are being paid. All student loan debt needs to be erased for those who are impacted the most and those who will be prevented from attending college because of it. The current United States government could easily afford to do so if they shifted their priorities away from murdering citizens and towards educating them. In addition, accessibility is not just about affordability. Students of color, openly LGBTQ+ students, and disabled students all have additional challenges to consider when applying for higher education. They may face discrimination from admissions offices, loan offices, teachers, and fellow students, just to name a few examples. The solution to this is education. Educating teachers, advisors, and society as a whole on how to accommodate and respect these marginalized groups is a necessary and long overdue step in making higher education accessible to the average American.
Properly compensating teachers and giving them the resources they need, teaching a curriculum based on the real world, and making higher education accessible to all students are things that I hope to see in education within the next ten years. Salvaging the American education system from its current state will be no easy task, but I truly believe that with the right people leading the way, it can be done.