It Just Makes Sense

Somewhere between puberty and young adulthood 1,000 to 5,000, students are expected to come together in one harmonious assemblage and co-exist for four years, earning the best grades, participating in sports, and making the most of the social scene, all the while preparing for the real world. This grand idea that we call high school was conceived in the mid 1800s and is long overdue for a revamping of sorts.

I believe that the standards for high schools should be the same across the board. North Carolina insures that every student is learning the same material by implementing the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. This is merely a pacing guide for each grade and what the students are expected to know by the end of the year. This would be ideal if all of the schools had the ability to utilize the same resources. However, because the state leaves most of the funding up to the counties some high schools lag behind. Take Wake and Bertie Counties for instance. Wake County’s median household income is $57, 846 compared to a meager $27,040 for Bertie County. Sure, there may not be as many students in Bertie County but would you not agree that these children should be offered the same educational opportunities as the ones in Wake County? If the state took all of the money for education and divided it equally according to how many students each school had it would be fair.

High schools should start later in the day. It is proven that young adolescents function better in the late morning and afternoons. If they started high schools at 9 o’clock in the morning and ended at 3 o’clock in the afternoon I am sure we would see a boost in moral. Most high school children have jobs and 2 hours of homework each night. Let’s say little Johnny gets off of work at 10 p.m., finishes his homework at 11:30, and is asleep by midnight. In order for him to get the recommended 8 hours of sleep he would have to wake up at 8 a.m. However, because his high school starts at 7:45 he would have to wake up at 6:45 to get ready and arrive on time. This leaves him less than 7 hours of sleep adversely affecting his concentration levels.

I would also change the amount of time that the children have for lunch. When I was in high school 25 minutes was all the time we had to get to the lunchroom, get our food, and eat. When you have to walk across campus and wait in line for the 300 students ahead of you to get their food that leaves you with approximately 2.5 seconds to eat. If they extended the day by about 20 minutes and allocated that time into the lunchtime it would work.

I’m sure if you interviewed today’s students about what they would change in high school you would hear exclamations about no homework, better food, more breaks, and even cut out high school all together. Though these ideas may seem great when you’re 16 it wouldn’t work in the scheme of things. Although, with some surveying and deliberation I’m sure that a few proposed ideas could indeed help and maximize student achievement. Who knows it could actually make it half way enjoyable for some.