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Health & Fitness

Why the Elmbrook Education System is a Failure

Cut-throat competition has always been a tradition in Elmbrook schools that should be embraced by the district.

A couple days ago, South Korean students took their college entrance exams. Unlike the SAT and ACT, however, every Korean student is required to take this exam and has only one chance to take it. Their future rides on one crucial afternoon. Parents walk their children to the exams, hand-in-hand, and nervously wait for them to finish. It is not abnormal to see a grown-man cry from the anxiety built up due to his son’s exam. This is exactly what Elmbrook schools need.

It is my opinion Elmbrook has done both a good and a bad job in achieving optimum academic competition. Last year, class rank was eliminated from Elmbrook high schools. This was one of the biggest mistakes the district could have made. As if students were not lazy enough. I heard most freshman (thank God it’s only most) aren’t even taking advanced placement (college level) classes. Parents will no longer be able to judge their children’s success by comparing them to their peers. Although this new “GPA meter” attempts to relieve this issue, it completely fails because true competition is between one or two rankings (for example, third and fourth place are worlds apart but cannot be differentiated on this new meter).

However, there are two good things about this new system. The first is that it still indicates first place status. Now, students can compete for the top place instead of settling for second or third.

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Second, the highest GPA in the class is indicated on every report card sent home (FINALLY the crazy concept of privacy has been eradicated). This is the one good thing introduced with the GPA meter. Now, the students below first place have a goal to overcome. They know what they’re up against. In addition, their parents can now put a numerical value to their obvious failure. with this new system, the students in first place must blindly fight the upcoming competition forcing them to take even more AP classes (instead of that pointless extracurricular class he only thinks he’s interested in).

The true problem, however, is in the middle and elementary schools. Strangely, there is no sort of class rank in the lower schools. In Korea, the scores of every test students take are publicly posted, including the name of the respective student. This healthy competition has led students to hop from study club to study club (extra schooling parents pay through the nose for) and come home at 10 p.m. each night. Even more impressive, these healthy habits are practiced from a very young age (nine- and 10-year-olds need to know hard work too). This is the sort of competition Elmbrook needs, nay the country needs (did you know, China produces five times as many engineers as America does?).

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Without these implications, America will continue down this path towards uneducated children and uneducated citizens. For too long has America put “happiness,” “maturity” and “responsibility” before good grades. Please, Elmbrook, open your eyes and make the changes not just the students need, but the country needs.

Note: This was a “satire.” In other words, almost everything in this was sarcastic or ironic. Replace all the bad adjectives with good adjectives, and there you have my real opinion.

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