On any given day during my time in High School, I’m sure I could have found at least one (although most likely many more) student who didn’t care about school. More so than this, I know I would encounter many other people who would complain about reading, writing, and thinking, especially when it came to American, and World Literature. This idea, that education and all involved with learning is just a joke and a waste of time, is a rising trend among many high school students. Unfortunately, it is also a very true idea. I have even found myself at times complaining about school and the work involved.

    The general lack in education, learning, creativity, social, cognitive, and advanced thought in today’s students is appalling. We are raising generations of unthinking, uncaring kids, and training them to enter the work force, instead of training them to be smart, dedicated, motivated and mentally ready for life's challenges. The reforms we need should not just be limited to high school, but must start at the most rudimentary and basic levels, primary schools. However, for the purpose of this contest, we will keep the ideas relevant to the reforms needed in today’s high schools, and how to help teachers and administrators better equip students for the coming future.

    Reform is often one of the hardest things to achieve. A reform for our schools would not be easy, especially since at the present moment, California is considering even more budget cuts to our precious schools. Thus, we must, for the moment, look at reform and understand it will take a long time to achieve. But this must not sway the ideas and actions of the people, but instead encourage them that there is still hope. With this, I propose to you a condensed plan of action to reform our high schools and better our students.

    Above all things, we must stop “teaching”. Now, I don’t mean firing teachers and closing down schools, as only a mad man would consider that reform. But instead, we must redefine what teaching is and the methods our teachers use to develop our children's minds. Presently, most of the state wide high school curriculum is based on presenting facts and requiring students to memorize them in order to pass standardized testing. A perfect example lies in teaching history. So why is this such a dreaded subject?

    Students tend to dislike history because it is fact, after fact, after fact, that they are required to memorize and repeat. Did knowing Ronald Reagan's presidential term, and the dates of the battle of Bull Run ever help anyone? Unless you are on a game show or teaching the subject, most likely not.

    Now, I am not saying that teaching history and knowing these things is bad, but that we must create a new way of teaching that is relevant and familiar to students. Facts are cold and unfeeling, and for the most part irrelevant to our daily lives. Giving a lecture on the Philadelphia Convention, even though it is important to our country’s history, will likely never stay in a student’s mind.

    So how do we change this? We must separate the ideas of history from the facts of history. Too many times, in all subjects, facts (date’s, names, times) overshadow the more important ideas (themes, issues, ideas, and thoughts) that are present in the material. Beating facts into people’s heads has never worked well as a teaching method, so we must use a round about, but ultimately more rewarding way to teach these important events. Instead of history being taught as facts, it should be taught as ideas. Themes and issues brought up by these historical events should be capitalized on as teaching moments.

    For example, let’s use Pearl Harbor. Most students have a basic concept of what Pearl Harbor is; an American Navel Base in the Pacific that was attacked by Japanese which thrust America into World War II. Teaching the facts is already what we do; the names of boats, generals, dates, and the reaction of the American people. It is an overview of the situation and then work based on facts to pass tests.

    However, if we taught the ideas it would be much different. We would still teach the event, what happened, who was involved, and the reactions of the people, but the application would change. Instead of basing the lesson and coursework on the facts that students needed to know in order to meet statewide and district wide standards, the lessons would be based on ideas and themes presented by the situation. For example; “In what ways does a country’s population change in order to cope with a large scale tragedy on home soil?” Instead of lectures, teachers would use class time to hold discussions on such questions or themes and create a deeper understanding and comprehension of the historical situation, incorporating relevant media outlets (such as YouTube or TV) and recent historical events (for this case 9/11 or the Timothy McVeigh bombings). Discussions using relevant media and entertainment help students to understand and become engaged in the lessons being presented. It makes the lessons personal, enjoyable, and relatable.

    Our generation has grown up in a world of conversation. We text, talk, blog, vlog, and video chat constantly. By using this familiar concept to teach students, it will help ideas sink in. Currently many districts forbid the use of YouTube and other such websites, for fear that students may get sidetracked or use it improperly. While these fears are completely understandable, if they made it available, even if it was just to teachers, we could employ this strategy. Many students in todays schools deplore public speaking and giving speeches. This may be due to the unpreparedness of our students, due to the fact that oratory and speech are not emphasized in our schools. By creating a curriculum that emphasizes communication skills, especially with an emphasis on group and class discussions, as well as presentation with a partner or group we can develop confidence in our students and nurture their oratory skills. This will not only give them an invaluable asset for life but increase the student’s confidence, self worth and self respect. In turn, these things will help students to function better in school by increasing productivity, openness and determination.

    One of my pastimes is watching short films. I find that they are usually better written, better told, and better produced then Hollywood films. One particular film I found was a French short film titled “Mozart Of the Pickpockets”. I suggested to the French teacher at my high school that she should check it out and see what she thought. She loved it and wanted to use it in one of her lessons, but was unable to do so because she could not access it.

    In my leisure time, I have found many, many, more videos and articles that would be good to incorporate into lessons and discussions, but unfortunately cannot be accessed at our public schools.

    But, these concepts do not only apply to history. The same way of teaching can also be used in English. In many classes students read books and take tests, thus festering a dislike for literature, as there is no life given to it. It is presented as dead. I had an English teacher my senior year, who embodied everything a teacher should be. He was innovative, enthusiastic, relevant, and truly cared about each and every one of us. When we would read books, he would always think of innovative and interesting ways to explore the concepts. For one lesson he sporadically took us all to the park to write sonnets on the idea of paradise, and bought us popsicles as well. It was things like that which made his class unique, exciting, unpredictable, and challenging.

    If we want reform, we must begin by making lessons and material relevant, interesting, and challenging in order to engage and teach students. I have found that when my teachers do this, I not only enjoy the class more, but I learn more as well. If we can create relevant lessons we have achieved step one.

    The second step would be to have school unity. My high school practiced this well. We were a medium-sized performing arts and technology school, with most of the student body in some form of performing art or another. Because of constant shows, rehearsals, and practices, and the amount of kids that take honors and AP classes, time is hard to come by for homework. Our teachers worked together and tried to coordinate as best they could, when to give big assignments, tests, papers, and other homework so as not to overly burden or stress us kids. It seemed to work well, because our school has consistently had the highest API score of the surrounding area high schools. In addition we have been picked as a demonstration school and been visited by people from other counties, states, and countries. And to top it all off we have been a silver medal winner for the past two years in US News and World Report’s “Top 500 Schools in America”.

    So what would this look like in other schools? First, teachers need to be dedicated to their jobs. If teachers care, then students care. This is what made my high school so successful. Our teachers genuinely cared about the students and were interested in what went on in their lives, outside of school and in the classroom. The different departments (math, science, english, social studies, language, etc) need to communicate with each other so that everyone know’s what is going on in the school. If there is a sense of school unity and pride, if the school is a safe and fun place to be, then students will flourish.

    So how do we accomplish these things? While we can stress to teachers the importance of being connected and knowing what’s going on, but we can’t ensure it. We can only hope that teachers do take their jobs seriously, and embody what teaching truly is.

    However, this really all comes down to the students. Do they want to learn? Do they want to grow and flourish? It can only happen if students are engaged and care about their work and studying. These two go hand in hand. When students care, they care about each other. When the see passion and excitement from teachers, they will convey it in their work and friendships. Like George Orwell said, “We are creatures of habit”. And so we follow the examples that the masters put before us, it is the human way. The reform we need in our schools is a fundamental one. Something that will give breath to a dying system. The layoffs solve nothing except for driving away new, passionate teachers, as sadly, I have seen happen. And this fundamental shift, is really a matter of character. A substitute teacher I had once told me that the most honorable, and exalted position anyone could be in, would be that of a teacher. You are in the position to inspire and impart wisdom and knowledge to other people.

    So what do we need? Relevance, unity and passion. These will give life to our schools, and these will help to fix our broken system. These will inspire and give hope to students, and these will help to create the people, people were meant to be. Thinking, breathing people, ready to take on the world and change it for the better.