Most Likely To Succeed Film Analysis

A documentary titled Most Likely To Succeed observed the unorthodox methods of a charter school in San Diego, California. The school, High Tech High, sought to teach children how to be creative thinkers, problem solvers, and leaders. The school did not have lesson plans, tests, or report cards. The students would instead do projects and learn things by doing them rather than being told by a teacher. Many students and parents expressed their concerns about how the students would perform on the SATs and in college. The teachers at High Tech High felt that these skills are vital for today's youth in order for them to find a job when they graduate. The parents argued that the skills being taught to the students should be saved for college. However,

According to the documentary “Most Likely To Succeed,” the American education system was created to train America’s youth for jobs in factories during the industrial revolution. However, technological advances will soon make those jobs obsolete. With machines being able to be programmed to do manual labor, the only jobs that will remain are those that require higher level thinking skills. The majority of current high school curriculum does not allow students to exercise their creative thinking skills and does not leave much room for free thought. The current curriculum was developed to teach what employers deemed essential knowledge, such as geometry, biology, and geography. These subjects should still be taught to children because a fundamental understanding of these subjects helps them understand the world around them. The U.S. government realized this and made public schools not only virtually free but mandatory to help children succeed. In contrast, today a college degree is more than ever vital for the country’s youth and the government has done little to help them obtain a higher education. The days of factory workers and laborers are over and it is time the nation prepares children for the road ahead. If not they are on the road towards certain failure and a life of poverty. With an already shrinking middle class one would think the government would be doing everything in its power to assist children in getting a higher education to find a