School is not perfect, there are a problems with how the learning system and environment are set up, how students and teachers act during class, how students and teachers treat each other during school hours, as well as how the school treats certain events and problems.
When it comes to school and technology, they don’t always mix. Teachers sometimes are not the most tech-savvy with computers and even projectors, and considering that the modern world is becoming more intertwined with technology, we need to start teaching students as well as teachers to be more familiar with technology as well as the proper time to use it, but more on that later. In my opinion, one of the reasons behind this might be the lack of funding given to some (not all) schools for perching computers to use to teach.
Speaking of funding, that’s another problem with schools today. Not all schools have access to a good amount of funding and can’t afford the resources to educate their students as best as they can. Quote “Less funding means smaller staffs, fewer resources and a lower number of services for students. (Chen)”. This becomes an even bigger issue when there are budget cuts made for certain schools or a group of schools, and even though some people say that funding won’t fix problems with a school and while there’s some truth to that depending on the school’s decisions, both me and others believe that the lack of funding is what creates some (if not all) of these problems in the first place. A good example of this problem could be a teacher that loses and/or forgets (sometimes on purpose for questionable reasons, if any) a student’s work or even major assignments and the student’s grade would start to plummet. Yet, no matter how many complaints the office staff and principal get from students, parents,etc.., they can’t afford to hire a replacement because of a tight budget and that’s not completely their fault.
Moving away from the broad statements of “Its the ENTIRE school’s fault”, we come to a problem that most can probably relate to in some fashion, bullying. Yes, I understand that for some people talking about how bullying is a problem in schools might sound like a broken record, yet there’s a reason for me to mention it (especially with the recent rise of suicide in my district). When a student bullies someone else, it’s a horrible and disheartening experience for the victims, and if it becomes a major issue,some victims might be driven to suicide. all because a bully can make a great person feel like they’re nothing but the scum of the earth, in other words, completely worthless. Not only that, but with what I said earlier about the modern world becoming intertwined more and more with technology (for those just skimming over the article and don’t understand or are curious about what I mean by “what I said earlier”, go read the first paragraph) also applies to bullying. With the accessibility that comes with social media, bullies can resort to cyber bullying a victim, because what you can say on social media can be a lot worse than what you can get away with saying on a school campus. But even if we ignore cyber bullying (admittedly, it’s very tough to stop), bullying is as, if not more prevalent than maybe 20, 40 years ago, and schools STILL haven’t found a reliable way to deal with it. Not only that, but some schools often don’t care about it and others may punish a victim of bullying for fighting back or fighting in SELF DEFENCE. Picture this for your example, you’re being bullied by this kid at your school, at first it’s just verbal bullying, but one day, this bully decides to beat you up (maybe to assert dominance over you or because they want to hit something or some other reason I can’t think of), so they walk up to you and just start hitting you, so you decide to fight back. Next thing you know, as you’re fighting, a crowd starts to form and chant “fight, fight, fight”(Maybe some one in there shouting “WORLDSTAR”, but you get the idea), this crowd attracts a teacher, one thing leads to another and suddenly you’ve been released from the office with your new, shiny one week suspension because you fought back in SELF DEFENCE!!! Do you think that’s FAIR. (P.S: to those who just read through all that, 1. Thanks for sticking with me so far, really appreciate it. And 2. Sorry for the one page paragraph, I just need to get a point across.)
Another factor that’s not a school’s complete fault is student behaviour. When it comes to a classroom, it’s supposed to be a place of learning and/or finishing work, yet, the behaviour of certain (common) students is rather disruptive and distracting to the class. Some students often don’t respect each other or even the teacher! In that kind of scenario, if it’s left unchecked, these students can ruin a daily class for both the students and teachers. An example of this can be a student maybe didn’t hear something there teacher said because of, let’s say mishearing something, and these disruptive students start getting on them for not paying attention and call them an idiot. Another factor in a classroom is what I hinted to earlier, (Spoiler Warning: if you didn’t read paragraph one before this, then skip ahead to the conclusion, but, if you did or just don’t care, than continue) the use of technology in a classroom environment. Phones can be a distraction to students within a classroom, so, in order to combat this distraction, I suggest two ideas, 1. Just in case, try to make lessons more fun and interesting as well as educational for the students so they won’t be tempted to take out their phones in the first place, and 2. Confiscate students phones if they are not being used properly.
In conclusion, there are some messed up things with schools, like seriously, to all the inanimate, nonliving school buildings out there, GET IT TOGETHER. (P.S: if my harmless sarcastic humor in some places offended you, then i just need to say, sorry i’m not sorry, after all, this is the same guy that put “We Are Number One” in the announcements 🙂 (P.P.S: great song by the way 🙂
Works Cited
Chen, Grace. “10 Major Challenges Facing Public Schools.” PublicSchoolReview.com. N.p., 01 Oct. 2016. Web. 22 Feb. 2017