Another one for me that I am a little bit, shall we say passionate about. I had a fairly good experience at school; in fact I'm one of those people who would go back. It wasn't the best school in the borough and I had my fair share of bullying (although it wasn't that bad), I got into fights, I got put on school report three times and I almost got suspended for skiving. So all in all pretty average I would say... But no, honestly, those were the bad things, not a lot really when you consider that you're in school for five years. I'm pretty sure I was given detention every day in my last year as well, the teachers knew I wouldn't go, I don't know why they bothered. I was never the best in class but I was always far from the worst, as I've said before I'm a pretty clever guy but I'm lazy. I also could have got much better grades had I actually applied myself properly, I didn't come off too bad I definitely have six C's and the rest were all D's I think, I honestly don't know anymore. It's one of my biggest regrets, I didn't take much notice of my grades because I didn't think you needed them, but you really do. Well kind of, they help, otherwise you've just got to back yourself up real well with experience but the grades definitely make it easier.
So I liked school, I had a great time - I'm not friends with many people anymore but I think that's kind of inevitable really for a lot of people. I have no bad feelings towards anyone; I just went a different. I suppose you're wondering by know why I'm being all nostalgic and what the point of this is, I'll start now...
The school system is an ever evolving thing, curriculums change almost every year and classes get bigger but the way school works is what I think needs to change completely. For those of you that know me, you will know that I am an American born in Britain. Not literally, but I would give anything to live there. One of the things I have always wanted to do is go to school in the States. They have it right. You have kindergarten, junior high and high school and then college/university. There are scholarships to award students for being exceptional both academically and in sports. Scholarships are a huge gap in the British education system because the thing that scared me the most about going to university and inevitably one of the deciding factors was the amount of debt you get into. Obviously not all of the students that graduate high school in the States get scholarships but at least the option is there to those who are willing to work for it.
Graduating is another thing. I love that. When you leave secondary/high school here, you just leave. There is no ceremony, usually the leavers just go somewhere and get drunk and that's what we all did anyway. Granted we would still all just get drunk afterwards anyway but imagine how cool it would be to graduate high school - a real show of achievement for the five years worth of studying and hard (or not so hard) work you do. The flip side of that of course is the being kept back a year if you aren't performing, I think that is just what we need over here. With the amount of disrespectful and disruptive chav like students in schools today, do you think they'd be so bad if they were threatened with having to do the same year again and again until they could pass? I think it would more efficiently separate those who really don't want to learn from those who are just easily distracted. Obviously there are downsides to this, the segregation may be seen as singling out and cause parents to become aggravated with the school and potentially the teachers involved. That is a downside but in my experience it is usually the parents to blame, if you don't care what your child is doing at school don't complain when they get punished for not achieving. And that's coming from a twenty-four year old with only what he sees to go by.
This is all well and good me saying this but obviously there schooling systems in Britain may have changed in the eight-ish years since I left but either way I bet it's not all that different.
It's obviously all funding. The government are the only source of income for most schools and that's why there is such a difference between the States and here. In America they use sports to help obtain funding for the rest of the school and there are also different levels of funding for overall academic achievement and school population. This is fairly similar - to my knowledge - for our system with the exception of the sporting industry. But the main thing I want to go on to say is about the age at which we leave. A lot of schools have the option of sixth form but generally those who choose to, are heading off to college at the age of sixteen. I know you don't think it at the time, but something you later understand is that you are just a child when you leave school. You have no idea what life is, you've been almost spoon fed everything up until this point and its now - when you have the most growing up to do, that you are asked to make a decision on what you want to do or be for the rest of your life! How ridiculous is that?
Personally, I barely knew what day it was let alone anything else. Some people manage it; some people have the foresight to know that doing one thing in particular is what they want and that it will make them happy. I used to think on and off that I wanted to teach English - the problem being I never focused enough on that idea to really believe it was right for me. Since I've been doing a lot of training in my job, that realisation has come to me far too late, I would love to tell younger Josh to follow it through - keep that thought but it does not do to dwell on dreams. So what I'm getting at is that the Americans keep their kids in school until they are 18. When you are 18 you are an adult... usually. You learn that little bit more to help you understand the world a bit better, two years when you're young is all you need to mature. And please don't think that all people under the age of 18 aren't grown up, there are some very bright and mature people in the world that know what they want and know how to get it and to those individuals I say well done you.
So I know a lot of you might not agree with me here - the obvious argument is that we are becoming too americanised as it is. I take that as a valid point but I still think that you have to take into consideration that there are more options for American kids than there are for British. When I have kids and they are growing up I will encourage them to apply to college in the States so they can take advantage of the mistakes I've made and the lessons I've learned and then hopefully they will get a job there and I can have a permanent holiday spot.
The first step in my opinion is to keep kids in school until they are 18, that's a definite. It would obviously affect the colleges in Britain but they could easily just merge with the surrounding schools, well maybe not easily but it could be done. I also think it is necessary to assist in kids learning to understand what they might want to do. Then we need to promote sports in a different way. High school and college sports are almost a religion in America and I love that, our problem is that the only real sport in Britain is football (or soccer to them Yanks) but we play loads of sports in schools. They all just seem to fizzle away after you leave. Like basketball, I don't mind telling you that I was probably the second or third best player at school. I loved it; watching NBA on the weekends and everything but there are no leagues or anything, nothing serious anyway. Building better sports facilities shout be step two. And finally the funding for better equipment etc. People may think that putting it last is a bit odd or even stupid but it's not. Not if you enforce academic achievement to be able to play on the teams in the first place, that way the schools grade average would hopefully increase and the government would have to provide better funding. Bish bash bosh, problem solved - or at least in my opinion anyway.
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