Traci Wall
The Signal
I like to look back on my transition from high school to college as an easy one: I was older, wiser and prepared to conquer the world with the knowledge that the state of Texas deemed satisfactory for a 12th-grade graduate.
In high school, I was used to taking eight classes at a time and cramming every outlined fact provided in my study guide into my brain for safe keeping for the few hours required to ace a test. I would then rush on to the next subject as all of that data dropped like ephemeral fruit flies from my memory.
I was at the top of my game and determined to do whatever it took to succeed, a task I thought was relatively easy for me. Those were the days…
In reality, my first college semester hit me like a ton of bricks. I was enrolled in only half the course load that I was in high school, which I thought would be “easing in” to college life. It didn’t take long to figure out that those four classes were truly a full-time commitment that required tools that I couldn’t just find on a class supply list.
Imagine my disenchantment when I received my first ever “C” on an exam for which I had memorized all of the facts and vocabulary. After all, for me, this method of study had never failed to produce straight A’s.
As I continued struggling to pass other assignments and exams, I floundered in uncertainty. When I joined a few study groups to relieve my woes, I was surprised to learn that many others were in my same dream-crushing boat.
I found out the hard way that college is about building on your (hopefully) established knowledge, which I had habitually forgotten after each test.
College courses require you to use the brain you should have been training for the previous 12 years to resourcefully find your own information, apply lectures to real-life scenarios, and to actually know what you’re talking about by retaining the information you’ve absorbed.
The skills, facts and real-world applications you learn need to stick throughout that class and the other 120 credit hours to come over at least the next four years. So what happens when you’re not prepared to learn this way?
Education was once a keystone of American values. It motivated us as Americans to be innovators and prepared us to lead and compete on a global level. Education is what built America to be, in my opinion, the greatest country in the world.
Standardized testing was implemented to keep grade-level kids on track in school so that they could still live up to those standards. In hindsight, all it really accomplished was holding kids back by training them not to care about actually earning an education; it taught students to care little about anything else but passing their state-mandated test and the subjects covered on it.
Passing standardized tests was crucial for students to progress to the next grade-level and for educators to preserve their jobs. Because of this, students were taught to reiterate test-focused information instead of learning how to think critically and retain valuable knowledge.
Budget cuts dismantled creative activities like music, theatre and art classes, and nixed field trips and other opportunities to learn. These cuts also left passionate, inspirational teachers in the dust.
This robs kids of the creativity, ingenuity, passion and direction needed to successfully compete in the real world.
The scientists that founded NASA and other visionaries of the 20th century are at the point of retirement. Our country’s young adults are leaving high school without the essential preparation and critical thinking skills necessary to succeed in college-level courses. Instead, they were taught to memorize shortcuts, vocabulary definitions and test-driven facts.
The light bulb taken for granted over many of our heads has been allowed to dim for years.
We cannot expect mediocre education to aid in replacing a legacy of scientists, astronauts, entrepreneurs and other intellectuals that built this powerful nation.
It is crucial to prepare our young adults to continually use the skills they have learned in class to critically think through situations and expose them to different opportunities so they can lead the way into our next chapter of America. We owe it to the future of America, and ourselves, to move forward and away from a standardized, under-budgeted and undervalued education.
