truth

What is the point of ‘learning’ subjects in preparation for college, when once out of college kids have no experience in the actual world? Students memorize formulas and textbook answers without much analysis, and they forget the data after the course is over. It would be beneficial to everybody if schools could introduce a curriculum that brought opportunities for teens to learn about current conditions and situations in the world.

The war in Iraq is still raging, but teenagers are too absorbed about their daily lives and self-fulfillment to actually acknowledge a war. We are more obsessed with SAT preparation and college applications than with a war that kills other people but never touches us; it’s another world. Overheard gossip in the hallways seems to be students’ source of news around school. There might be a few opportunities for students to learn that, yes, there is an outside world where tyrannical governments control massive populations. Yes, civil wars are still occurring and ten-year-old kids are handed guns and ordered to fight. Yes, women are being raped and children murdered in a faraway place called Darfur where genocide is happening. But these protests are not long-lasting or effective, and students forget about the poverty and death occurring on another continent after a week.

I know that schools are institutions for learning and not buildings manufacturing philanthropists, but I believe students are willing to help if they are more informed. Students can discuss world-wide events as a class, and a teenage generation who are seriously learning can put that knowledge to use in the real world.