According to the XCL American Academy, the American school system is known for “providing high-quality education through a balanced, tried-and-tested curriculum.” XCL American Academy also deems the school system as “Simply the Best” in their 2023 article. But if the American school system is so great, why do so many students fail each year?
The current system is split into four sections, separating students into age groups: Pre-K, which contains children between the ages of 3 and 4; Elementary, which hosts students from ages 5 to 10; Junior high, which hosts students from ages 11 to 14; and High School, where ages 15 through 18 are hosted.
The purpose of age segregation is to classify students to learning capabilities based on their cohort abilities expected at their age. The current teaching style that is implemented in the system focuses on math, science, and English, which require structured “right” or “wrong” answers and don’t allow students to creatively come up with their own solutions to a problem. In 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) was passed through Congress to hold schools accountable for how students will learn and achieve. It ensured that all students who were entered into the public system had an equal opportunity to learn in the classroom. However, NCLBA only pressured schools to make students reach the standardized testing minimum to prevent them from being defunded.
Later in 2015, NCLBA was replaced with former President Obama’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), an act that was similar to the ideals of the NCLBA: to make sure public schools provide quality education to all kids. However, the ESSA still maintains the status quo of being unable to determine a student’s succession or failure. This is tricky for many young creatives because the focus of the public school system is to make a student seem successful on paper rather than embracing creative talents.
Art classes are usually not well funded and are often put to the side as an elective. The same thing occurs with other creative electives such as band and journalism. The school is essentially a system that trains children how to become workers with the ideology of only having one solution to every problem; there is no creative thinking involved when creative thinking is basically not allowed in the classrooms, making careers in creative subjects seen as a joke.
“It’s like a charity case. People say:’Ooh my god Zora you’re in band? You’re so brave for that.’” said Zora Thomas. “I’m just a normal human being.”
‘Normal’ human beings are meant to explore their creativity and express themselves, but in our modern school system, expression is discouraged. Whether it’s expression through fashion or even in the visual arts, students are always restricted through rules like an overly sexist dress code or harsh specifics on the techniques used in art. Students don’t really have the ability to display the talents that many are already capable of due to this “one solution” ideology, making students feel negatively about themselves for not originally having the same solution that the system implies. The American school system doesn’t just fail creativity, but also leaves behind its neurodivergent population; students who have a different way of thinking and understanding of subjects.
With the system using blanket techniques to teach all of its students, it leaves behind these individuals who already are at a disadvantage due to their different train of thought.
“I feel like a zoo animal stuck in a cage when I’m at school,” said Anonymous. In the famous Melanie Martinez song, ‘Numbers’, Martinez lyricises how the school system treats their students as another number in the system, all for the sake of material gain.
“Am I just a number? ‘Cause it seems like that’s your goal.”
You push us past our limits just to watch decimals grow
Oh, I need a reason why I’m looked at like a joke
Until I prove you wrong like I’ve done time and time before”
Ultimately, the American school system has to change, and soon. If there is any potential for change in the current system, it is up to the future generations of the student body to make a difference for the better of all.
