Pursuing American Dream

"Pursuing our Rights and Achieving the American Dream:"
The title of this blog (Life, Liberty, Happiness) outlines the three basic rights every human being is entitled to: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, often referred to by property. The first topic that this blog will explore is the United States Education System.
Education is the foundation to every society. Taking a look back into history and even in our own world today, whenever there is an attempt to oppress a group of people, the first thing that is taken from the group being oppressed is their right to an education. Look at our own history, before the civil rights movement, African-Americans may have been allowed to attend a school, but often times this schooling was worthless compared to the one being received by the white community.

One of the greatest aspects of our great country is the idea that we all have equal opportunity to pursue happiness.

It is not given to us, but what is given, are the tools that we need to reach our definition of success. Success in this context is based on our own personal definition: for some it may be becoming rich and living in a large house with nice stuff; for others it may just be having a career they love and being able to come home to a loving family every day; still for others it is being able to try new things and take lots of risks. Whatever your definition of success may be, it is equivalent to what your American Dream is.
However, achieving dreams takes a lot of work. As an American you are guaranteed a free twelve year education to help you gain the skills and knowledge needed to achieve your American Dream. So if we are provided with the tools that will help us reach our American Dream, then why are people saying the American Dream is dead to those who are not born into a ‘privileged’

family?
Through my observations, our public education system has become one that has handicapped students from learning and preparing them for their future as an American Citizen. Today, education in America has become about testing and rankings. The focus is not on helping students learn to think critically using their own reasoning, formulating their own opinions, and becoming contributing members of society. Rather, it has become a political function that wants to improve its numbers on the international playing field, even if the cost is an uneducated society.
This year, I am taking two AP courses, AP Literature and Composition as well as AP Statistics. In both of these courses I have found myself struggling more than I normally would in a math or english course, because we are graded as the AP tests is graded. The most prominent example of this would be a Stats test: I would get the answer right, but lose a large sum of points on the question because I would not use the procedure taught in the textbook.
Yes, in math especially, there are certain ways things must be done; however, there are many instances that there may be more than one correct way to solve a problem. Yet, even though that is so, in an AP class you must use the way the course dicates, even if there is an easier way that may make more sense to you personally.
Education is the foundation of any society and yet, in one of the most powerful countries in the world, we are failing to educate our students so that they may become contributing members of society. We have become more concerned about test scores and being high rankings that we have lost sight of what truly matters: our students who are our future.
Thanks for reading, please leave your comments and thoughts below, please, please 'Like' this page, and keep your eyes open for the next post: “Educating a Nation for a Better Tomorrow.”