An Inclusive System is the first step towards Healing by Valeria

Valeria's entry into Varsity Tutor's July 2022 scholarship contest

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An Inclusive System is the first step towards Healing by Valeria - July 2022 Scholarship Essay

I remember being 5 years old, sitting at the kitchen table on Friday afternoons, listening to my father’s lectures. As I turned my head and stared at the window my father's strict and frustrated voice said: You cannot play outside until you get all of these math problems solved correctly. My dad didn't realize it- in fact, he thought he was doing me a favor- but those Friday afternoon math sessions were actually the beginning of self-doubt that followed me for the rest of my academic career.

The approach my father took to “teaching” me was very linear, non-inclusive, and forceful. It felt more like a punishment than a way of learning. Because I could not solve a couple of math problems as fast as my other peers, it felt like I was not adequate enough to play outside. Just like the mistakes my father made, the education system continues to make the same ones each day.

There are many aspects of the American Education system that are also linear, forceful, and non-inclusive. For one, it is a system made to reward those students who master materials the fastest, while leaving behind those who have a difficult time grasping them. There are timed standardized tests that don’t accurately measure a student's proficiency and curriculums that focus on teaching concepts in one standard way to students who may learn differently. Additionally, the education system focuses too much on competition and minimizes collaborations.

Within the next ten years or so, I hope to live in an educational environment that teaches its students that working together instead of competing against each other is an excellent road to success. I hope to see fewer standardized tests or at least ones that are not timed and restricted. In the future, I also want to live in a system where curriculums are geared toward students with different learning styles such as visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Instead of having students sit at a desk listening to teachers, reading textbooks, and completing assignments, I hope to see more inventive ways of teaching. Incorporating teaching styles involving more movement around the classroom and collaboration would be a progressive change in education.

If the education system incorporates these changes into its curriculums, I strongly feel that students from all walks of life and all learning styles will thrive. Education and learning are supposed to be about incorporation and creativity, not about fast results and standardized tests that place students into a single box and deteriorate their self-worth and creativity. Every kid deserves to feel seen and heard, and acknowledging that our system is flawed and un-inclusive is the first step towards healing and fixing the academic trauma many students face, as well as building a better education system.

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