Competition In Education

Competition in Education

Overstressed, overworked, and sleep-deprived: these are the students of our education system. With schools becoming more competitive, students of the U.S. are working harder than ever to stand out in a crowd of standardized education. And now, the competition has expanded from across the country to across the world.
There is an unspoken hostility between top students, as we begin to look around our classes and realize that these are our future career opponents. The best colleges will only accept the best students, and therefore, every student aspires to be “the best.” Nearly all high school students’ exhausting struggles revolve around Advanced Placement courses, credits, GPA scores, valedictorians, and honor roll. Margaret Talbot, in her article titled “Best in Class” discusses students’ uprisings over the title of valedictorian in their graduating classes and rivalries for the highest GPAs. Talbot’s article mentions that “Students at the top of their class… are often separated by one thousandth of a decimal point.” The level of difficulty in school has increased substantially, with many high schoolers now taking college courses before they graduate. This change in difficulty has made it harder to distinguish exactly who is deserving of the title of valedictorian. Talbot states that the overall mean of GPA has increased from 2.68 to 2.94, due to a combination of grade inflation and the fact that students are working harder. Competition arises between students as they strive to get straight A’s, join as many clubs as possible, aim for the highest SAT scores. To top it off, many students sue their schools and other possible candidates over the title of valedictorian. Though most forget about carrying the title when they leave high school, it is still an impressive component that will make one student stand out above the rest. And this is the appeal of it; if a student can say they are at the top of their class, they have more of a chance of getting into the college they want. So how do we fix the problem of controversy over the title of valedictorian? Talbot talks about some schools that have worked to get rid of the label altogether. For example, Sarasota High School of Sarasota, Florida has removed their valedictorian honor and replaced it with celebrating the top 10% of their school. This approach allows more students and families to be happy, with the ability to say they were at the top of their class. Now we have proposed a solution to competition across the country, but face similar problems worldwide. The movie Two Million Minutes travels through the experience of high schoolers across the world. It describes the learning process of both boys and girls in the United States, India, and China. One of the main differences observed in the movie is the quality of motivation, and the U.S. is clearly lacking in that area. Countries such as China and India are economically unstable; therefore students work hard to ensure a secure future. But in America, we find students that aim to balance a combination of school and a social life, as opposed dedicating all of their time to school the way Indian and Chinese students typically do. Though Indian and Chinese schools do not have as advanced equipment as the U.S., their dedication seems to make up for any lacking areas, and they continue to produce students that may go on to be well-employed adults in the future. In order for America to surpass its rival countries, we must reevaluate our education system. Chinese and Indian schools are specialized from early on, and have an overall difficulty level that is more advanced than that of America’s. In response, we should teach students to utilize their time to the best of their ability, make classes focus on more in-depth topics, and provide helpful teachers.
We cannot fall behind in the advancement known as education. But, we also cannot overwork our students to the point of exhaustion. It is already difficult for the average student to balance class, work, family, homework, sleep, health, hobbies, a social life, extracurricular activities, and volunteer work. Our country as a whole should aim to put more effort in reforming the American education system. We must study and test approaches to find the best possible combinations, that will guarantee an intelligent future for our country.