FREE ESSAY ON FUNCTIONAL EDUCATION SYSTEM

FUNCTIONAL EDUCATION SYSTEM

Sam Bertolami
British Literature
4th Period
8-10-00
When I accepted the position of Secretary of Education I was asked to design and create
an education system that is works. Unfortunately it is my belief that no one person can
create a fully functional system of education. The problem with the current educational
system is not the teachers, principals, supplies, or budgets [Though the latter two
create problems unique to the situation]. The problem with the current education system,
and all education systems, proposed or previous, are the students. 
A handful of unmotivated students, say 5 in a class of 20, can greatly decrease the
measure the amount the other 15 motivated students learn in relation to what they are
normally able to learn. This decrease is caused by the slow rate at which one of these
classes will progress due to the unmotivated students disposition to learn. This
unfortunate trait is all too evident in classrooms of America, causing bright students
not to fall back in grades, but not to learn to the total extent of their ability. 
My proposal is not that we need a new teaching system, that classrooms must be structured
differently, or that students must be further segregated according to their skills. There
is no existing reason that the most advanced I.B. student cannot be placed in a class
with the lowest student in Tech Prep and the Tech Prep student be capable of keeping up
with the I.B. student if the extra effort is willing to be put forth. It is that students
must first have the desire to learn. Until these unmotivated students decide to take
responsibility and prepare to learn, there can be no true working education system.
In closing I would like to state that this seemingly perfect system of teachers
instructing and all the students paying heed and learning is not impossible. Only we are
unable of designing the system that can coerce students into being attentive. The
students themselves must resolve to make this happen, until then educational systems will
forever have the same problems as the systems of today and yesterday.