A Fairer, Diverse Future by Maureen

A Fairer, Diverse Future by Maureen - July 2022 Scholarship Essay

There are many obvious disparities between schools with high and low funding. For example, private education offers schools a larger budget to allocate on highly accredited teachers and newer facilities for students to utilize. While this doesn't necessarily constitute for a better education, it definitely aids in certain ways by connecting students to preexisting social networks and usually exposing them to more opportunities. Even within the public education system, the amount of funding given to schools affects the resources that they are able to provide for students and this in turn changes the quality of education that each student receives. One of my hopes for the future of the education system is for it to be more fair across the board, specifically regarding funding. I understand that this is a difficult issue to broach because circumstances fluctuate and money always seems to be an issue and private schools have their own way of obtaining funding, but at least regarding public education I hope that we find a better way to allocate the budgets for schools.
A lot of the less appealing public schools are zone schools which students end up being placed in if they don't qualify for their chosen school and for a variety of other reasons. Zone schools aren't inherently bad and just because of their label doesn't mean that you can't receive a good education there, but compared to their higher ranked counterparts they might face more obstacles in their path to receiving an education. One obvious problem could be insufficient funding which leads to a lack of proper materials to teach students. Another could be the mental health of students. Many who attend these zone schools tend to underestimate themselves and have less motivation to achieve high marks because of the reputation their schools have, which can negatively affect their self-image and self-worth. I feel that it's needed to try and even the playing field between schools so that students not only receive the proper help that they need to succeed, but also so they can continue to tap into their potential and not let it be hindered early on.
I also hope that in the future curriculums will be more inclusive and diverse. There have been efforts made to change this in the present, but my hope is that in 10 years' time there will be even more, better organized options. Particularly with history, in the United States we focus on European and American history for most of our education. There are scarce mentions of other civilizations and other peoples throughout our textbooks, and when there are referrals to other races and different events it's usually just about slavery and the perils of minorities. Obviously slavery is important to learn about as it's a cornerstone of our history, but compared to all that we are forced to learn about American and European strength and victories, we never take the time to do the same for that of other races.
With all the time we spend in school with a focus on the Western World, it's important to expose ourselves to some of the history about other countries as well. This is to learn more about how the World came to be in it's current state, but also because I think that there's a certain point that students often reach of boredom when it comes to history because of how overly saturated it is with information on America and Europe. A more inclusive curriculum can't force students to like history it's just not to certain people's tastes, but it will provide a broader look on the history of the World and will hopefully entice certain students more because of the learning variety. As an Asian American, history classes were often dreadful for me because of how repetitive they felt every year. The gap in my learning and representation also left me feeling insecure and sometimes less than my White counterparts. Since there wasn't history to learn in the classroom about the places and people I came from, it felt as if it didn't exist at all, which oftentimes made me feel unimportant. This is exactly why we need to diversify our learning curriculum, we can't afford to become ignorant to it. It would be a weakness not to expose ourselves to the people and World around us.
My hopes for the education system in the future are things that are already being built upon now. I only wish that they be improved further and substantial changes can provide a better organized and higher quality education for students. We deserve to have the resources needed to help us thrive and foster our interests, which is why better allocation for funding and a diverse curriculum would help students become multifaceted and better equipped to overcome the challenges that they'll face in the future.