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.
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