way they are taught. Nearly every school is the same (Wood 9). The students go to class around eight in the morning and come home around three in the afternoon. If a student is old enough, that student will move on to the next grade. Generally a student’s ability is not taken into account when they are promoted. As a result, many students feel bored and as though the concept of school is a compulsory endeavor, which is constrictive and dull (Sarason 4). It is obvious why this does not work. No one can learn in an environment like that. Frieberg 5Another problem concerns practicality. Many of the subjects and classes don’t reveal to the student how it will be useful to them in the present or the future. I can remember sitting in algebra class thinking to myself, “Where in the WORLD am I going to need to know how to subtract x from both sides?” Of course, I have found myself using what I learned in algebra to figure out more problems than I can remember ranging from percents to gas mileage. The problem is that where I picked up some of the algebra I would need, I did not pick up all of it. That is true among many students in high school, if not even to a lesser degree. Relevancy and validity are left out of the classrooms mainly because of approach. Algebra problems could contain more practical uses of equations (because as of right now some do, but the majority of them do not). The estimated time of arrival of two trains leaving from different stations and traveling different distances is one of the least practical ways someone can learn. Show students how to balance checkbooks. Show them not only how to compute interest, but how and why it is important. I remember being shown how to compute interest. I don’t remember being taught what interest was and what it Frieberg 6might mean to me in the future. This could have prevented my abuse of my credit cards. By showing practical, important us...
