Implementing Change by Sydnee

Implementing Change by Sydnee - July 2022 Scholarship Essay

Change doesn’t happen overnight, and it isn’t always for the better. The effects of Covid-19 have brought a lot of negative change and produced many challenges that need to be overcome in order to move forward with positive change. Today, we are seeing children fall behind because of the effects of Covid-19, with no plan to catch them up, which is detrimental to the educational well being of those students. Not only does falling behind effect their long-term educational goals, but it effects their mental health in terms of thinking that they are inadequate or a failure.
The first change that I would like to see is a plan of action that is dedicated to catching these children up. I have seen first hand some of the effects of the pandemic. My brother was a straight A student throughout his schooling career, until it came to his senior year, where he almost didn’t graduate because of online learning. Teachers were doing their best with what they were given and the circumstances that they were dealing with. However, online learning isn’t the best option for everyone. Some people struggle with online learning because they need a structured environment and a classroom setting to stay on track. In order to catch these students up, there should be resources available to bring these students back on track, without further pushing them back.
Another change that I would like to see is for public schools to be more standardized. In Finland, who has the best education system in the world, all schools are the exact same. You could go to any school in the country and they would have the same resources and curriculum. Here in the United States, curriculum varies by state and by city. In poorer cities, won’t have the same resources as a richer city, which gives students different advantages and disadvantages on pursuing a higher education. Every student deserves the same chances of pursing a higher education if that is what they choose.
Looking at Finland again, they abolished standardized testing in their country. Standardized testing is proven to not be a good indicator of where students are at in their education. In fact, I would argue that they do more harm than good. I think that standardized testing should be taken out of the schools, and other methods of literacy should be conducted. Eliminating multiple choice testing is the first step in testing reform. Adopting short answer and oral testing are great replacements, because they actually test the knowledge of the student rather than letting them guess at answers and being deceived by trick answers on the multiple-choice questions.
Every student should also have the same opportunity to eat a meal in school. This is another issue that stems from different economic backgrounds of the students’ families. Free school meals should be provided for every student, regardless of economic backgrounds. At the very least, meals should be breakfast and lunch. There is no reason that a student should have to go hungry throughout the day, which in turn effects their learning. No person can learn effectively if they are not getting their basic needs met of being fed.
Though these changes are a baseline of what can be hoped to change, there are many more changes that would greatly impact the learning of the students. Students everywhere should be given the same chance of receiving an education. They should feel safe and secure with all their basic needs met. I hope that within the next ten years, these changes can be implemented with steps taken to further improve the education system.