Over the past few weeks, I've learned three things:
You know, I had always heard of people complaining about junior year. It was kind of like that creepy ghost legend that your friends told you at sleepovers (*coughTOBYcough*) or that weird kid who you've only heard whispered rumors about but whose name strikes fear in your heart for some peculiar reason. But instead of learning that the gossip is totally fake, it turns out to be true. So. Very. True.
For the last week or so, I have been getting consistently 5 hours of sleep every night. Do you know how many hours of sleep teenagers are supposed to get? 9 1/4 hours. I am literally getting almost half of what I should be for my age. I used to think that perhaps I could function on 5 or 6 hours of sleep and that I could just make it up the next night. However, I've noticed recently that I have trouble concentrating during tests or homework and find myself consistently daydreaming or dozing off during class, which leads to missing lectures, which leads to having to stay up to study even more, which leads to sleepiness, which leads to being even more inattentive during class. It's a terrible cycle.
Of course, I'm not complaining about our teachers. Most of them have no choice other than giving us lots of homework so we can understand what's going on in class, and I enjoy most of my classes. Nevertheless, 3 hours of homework every night gets tough for someone with lots of extracurricular activities like me. (Ever try balancing schoolwork, newspaper, Student Council, piano, violin, club presidential duties, and PSAT and SAT studying?)
This is made worse by my, do I dare say it, obsession with grades? Ever since a young age, my life has revolved around awards, honor rolls, GPAs, and class rankings -- school has become more of a competition than a learning environment for me and many of my peers. On one hand, I can understand how the education system is just trying to sort us out and give us a taste of real life, where competition is an extremely prominent aspect beyond high school, but I wish that there could be less of an emphasis on it. I feel like I'd be more interested in learning if I didn't have to worry about my rank dropping because of a bad grade. In addition, I've noticed that I literally cannot accept bad grades. I have mental breakdowns and end up feeling terrible for the rest of the day and imagine my future as part of the McDonald's workforce.
But I'm not going to sit here and complain for 5 paragraphs because that's just annoying. Let me tell you about a country that has an amazing education system. Finland has ranked in the top world education systems ever since its education reforms 40 years ago. They've consistently beat out many Asian countries, which are stereotypically considered to be the "smartest" countries in the world. In fact, they were #1 in the world a few years ago (2012, I believe). 93% of Finnish high school students graduate from high school, a whopping 17.5% higher than the United States, who doesn't even make the top 10 for education systems. One of the main reasons why Finland has such a great education program is its teacher preparation. Teachers are valued as highly in society as doctors and lawyers, and they have to go through rigorous training to become teachers. This allows the students to be taught by the best of the best, creating a more intelligent population over time. Now I'm not saying that any of my teachers are bad this year (they're all great!), but I have had, well, questionable teachers in the past. There's been one class in particular (no names) where I literally learned nothing. You could try to ask me any question about that class now, and I would have no idea what the answer was. Our teacher wasn't qualified, not because he/she didn't understand the subject, but because he/she wasn't capable in teaching.
The point is that our education system could be a lot better. We could focus more on caring for the student instead of churning out information-stuffed, burned-out student. We could make sure that they don't develop health problems from a lack of sleep and exercise (which, by the way, is a whole other debate because sometimes I don't even go outside at all for a day because I just don't have time to). We need to change, and soon.
- It is possible to finish an entire season of a TV show in a weekend.
- Double-stuffed Oreos give me life.
- Junior year sucks. A lot.
You know, I had always heard of people complaining about junior year. It was kind of like that creepy ghost legend that your friends told you at sleepovers (*coughTOBYcough*) or that weird kid who you've only heard whispered rumors about but whose name strikes fear in your heart for some peculiar reason. But instead of learning that the gossip is totally fake, it turns out to be true. So. Very. True.
For the last week or so, I have been getting consistently 5 hours of sleep every night. Do you know how many hours of sleep teenagers are supposed to get? 9 1/4 hours. I am literally getting almost half of what I should be for my age. I used to think that perhaps I could function on 5 or 6 hours of sleep and that I could just make it up the next night. However, I've noticed recently that I have trouble concentrating during tests or homework and find myself consistently daydreaming or dozing off during class, which leads to missing lectures, which leads to having to stay up to study even more, which leads to sleepiness, which leads to being even more inattentive during class. It's a terrible cycle.
Of course, I'm not complaining about our teachers. Most of them have no choice other than giving us lots of homework so we can understand what's going on in class, and I enjoy most of my classes. Nevertheless, 3 hours of homework every night gets tough for someone with lots of extracurricular activities like me. (Ever try balancing schoolwork, newspaper, Student Council, piano, violin, club presidential duties, and PSAT and SAT studying?)
This is made worse by my, do I dare say it, obsession with grades? Ever since a young age, my life has revolved around awards, honor rolls, GPAs, and class rankings -- school has become more of a competition than a learning environment for me and many of my peers. On one hand, I can understand how the education system is just trying to sort us out and give us a taste of real life, where competition is an extremely prominent aspect beyond high school, but I wish that there could be less of an emphasis on it. I feel like I'd be more interested in learning if I didn't have to worry about my rank dropping because of a bad grade. In addition, I've noticed that I literally cannot accept bad grades. I have mental breakdowns and end up feeling terrible for the rest of the day and imagine my future as part of the McDonald's workforce.
But I'm not going to sit here and complain for 5 paragraphs because that's just annoying. Let me tell you about a country that has an amazing education system. Finland has ranked in the top world education systems ever since its education reforms 40 years ago. They've consistently beat out many Asian countries, which are stereotypically considered to be the "smartest" countries in the world. In fact, they were #1 in the world a few years ago (2012, I believe). 93% of Finnish high school students graduate from high school, a whopping 17.5% higher than the United States, who doesn't even make the top 10 for education systems. One of the main reasons why Finland has such a great education program is its teacher preparation. Teachers are valued as highly in society as doctors and lawyers, and they have to go through rigorous training to become teachers. This allows the students to be taught by the best of the best, creating a more intelligent population over time. Now I'm not saying that any of my teachers are bad this year (they're all great!), but I have had, well, questionable teachers in the past. There's been one class in particular (no names) where I literally learned nothing. You could try to ask me any question about that class now, and I would have no idea what the answer was. Our teacher wasn't qualified, not because he/she didn't understand the subject, but because he/she wasn't capable in teaching.
The point is that our education system could be a lot better. We could focus more on caring for the student instead of churning out information-stuffed, burned-out student. We could make sure that they don't develop health problems from a lack of sleep and exercise (which, by the way, is a whole other debate because sometimes I don't even go outside at all for a day because I just don't have time to). We need to change, and soon.