Education and Our Futures

After class on Wednesday and our talk about education, it made me think about my education back when I was in high school.  Now that I look back on school in general, almost every year I can remember of Junior High School we had special state tests that all the teachers were crazy over.  All year long the teachers would refer to how this information will be on that test in March.  They would say how that we need to get the highest scores possible to show that our school is one of the best.  Then when March got here, all of students were tired of all the talk about these tests.  The days of these tests the teachers would treat all the students like we were royalty.  There were those few teachers that always were this way, but you had those ones who were just there for the paycheck.  When you look at this now from a viewpoint of a college student, you see that those teachers were just wanting all of students to receive the highest scores possible so that way the score could receive a certain amount of money.  

Education has become just like majority of everything has became in our society, All about the money!!!! What happened to the days that the teachers were there to help better the students and the teachers were not teaching to the test?  When there wasn't a test for every grade everywhere in the nation on every subject?  What did these test really mean to the students?  To me back then they did not seem to mean much of anything.  It was just another test to try my best on, and most of the time we didn't see the scores.  Now today I can't even remember what was on any of the tests I had taken in high school.  Like someone mentioned in class, majority of the things that we were tested on, are on things that are not towards the field that we are going into now.  I feel if they start earlier in education on helping determine what path a student wants to take by allowing more subjects to be offered.  This would make more sense, than putting a student into a class of band or choir, when they are going to major in becoming a translator or something of this sorts.  

My opinion is that education is for those who want to help better not only themselves, but those who come into their path, and in result; creating hopefully a more educated future.  Education is a choice at the college level, but the real decision is deciding whether you want to apply yourself and become someone that will use that knowledge to help the future.  Are you one of those students?