Dear American School System,

Education is exalted by society as the key to success—without it, one will go nowhere in life. Although gaining knowledge and life experience is necessary to grow as a person, your current state that is full of bylaws, strict rules, caveats, and hoops that teachers have to jump through makes school a scary place for many.

You have practically remained unchanged over the past 150 years and have failed to keep up with the ever-changing mindset, demographic, and needs of your students and the educators that keep your system alive do not receive proper compensation for their work. It is time that you adjust and adapt to what the students and teachers of America need—not what makes the most “bang for your buck”.

You are educating future doctors, lawyers, artists, engineers, and yes, even teachers—and the way you have been doing so is not preparing these students for life but creating habits of memorization and regurgitation—that is not knowledge. You and your teachers that you employ should be encouraging students to develop their minds and helping them each step of the way with an individualized approach.

However, it seems as if students, especially those of a minority, get lost in the crowd and are beaten-down by your one-size-fits-all approach. It is time that you re-write policies for schooling to be more individualized and to reconfigure the outdated and harsh standardized testing process and create a new generation of thinkers.

Teachers in other countries are respected more, have better resources to help their students, and they get paid way more. Because of this, students succeed way more. It’s sad that people decide against being a teacher because it is hard to live off the salary.

Putting more financial support aside for your schools and for your teachers is a long-term investment in the future of our nation. More teachers equal lower student to teacher ratios, better lesson plans, and more people who are in these students’ corners. These kids will be running the country someday, so they deserve the best

People who memorize formulas without understanding them, write without a voice, and only create content for a deadline are not people who are going to change the world—can’t you see that? The times have changed, school system, and it’s about time that you catch up. We need great big thinkers, creators, and inventors full of curiosity and courage. We need people who care about people—not about grades and money.

However, the narrow-minded mentalities of students will not shift unless you allow them to. The only way to get these outcomes is to make the learning environments safe spaces for children. Spaces that make them want to learn. Students who actually want to come to school and learn are few and far between today, and that is a problem. Our nation has always prided itself on being a powerful and developed world power.

Nevertheless, when it comes to educating our youth to continue that mindset, you seem to be standing in the way. Yet, things do not have to remain the same. You have put these children in a box, and it is now your turn to do something about that. You have the power to free them.

Sincerely,

A concerned student and citizen