It gives me an adrenaline rush.
That last statement was a lie; if education reform gets your heart pumping you should probably talk to someone. Maybe start a blog about it.
I digressed. The reason I picked this topic is because I moved growing up. A lot. In my latest move, I went from a junior in Park City High School (located in Utah) to a senior in Mountain View High School (located in Colorado). I've personally felt the frustration of retaking courses and skipping some subjects entirely because my new school teaches in a different order than my last one.
It's infuriating.
As a senior in high school, I had to take a government class filled almost exclusively with freshman. In my Utah high school, you take government as a senior. In my Colorado high school, you take it as a freshman. So, you know... that wasn't awkward at all.
Being the only senior in a room full of a freshman.
Having them gawk at you because they think you're stupid and got held back.
Being the only one who knew what an MLA format is and how to include a work cite page.
The maturity gap in that class was almost indescribable, there were a lot of times I wanted to throw my hand in the air and shout You're not even supposed to be here! This is a class for seniors! But I couldn't, because it was a class for freshman in Colorado.
Another thing that I remember pretty well was taking the required Financial Literacy in my Utah high school. A requirement that nearly all the high schools in that state have. Did Colorado have that requirement?
No.
Of course not.
When I moved, not only did I find out I'd wasted my time taking that class, but it was topped off by the fact I would have to take the required Economics class for my Colorado high school. It wasn't like I could refuse, I wasn't allowed to graduate without that Economics class.
Great.
Just great.
It's like switching schools between states is a monster, and required classes are just one face of that beast. Along with that, there's the loss of community scholarship, the loss of certain accreditations, the loss of state-specific residency status, loss of some club, loss of certain electives, and just a landslide of other issues.
Yeah, I'm a little bitter about moving. And I blame a lot of that anger on the education system. I wasted so much time taking freshman classes my senior year, I only took one class that had students my age in it. I lost some potential friends by going through the asinine ritual being educated to what one state thought was appropriate. I lost out on IB certification because my first high school had offered it when my next two didn't. I also lost out on a LISA certification, because the high school I attended as a senior required that students start it as a freshman.
This is what makes me passionate about education reform and standardizing education. It literally gets exhausting sitting down with the new school's principal to argue why you should get credit for a certain requirement because of a class you took in your last school.
I'm not trying to blame teachers or guidance counselors or principals for this. In all my experience, they've always done their best to help and be accommodating. The problem is, they have no idea what I've learned when my Virginia transcript says "8th Grade Honors Math" and they're trying to place me in a Utah 9th grade math class. I could either be ahead or behind, and they have no idea. They just have to take a gamble. I don't blame them, I blame the state level government thought this set up was brilliant.
*sigh*
That got a lot angrier than I intended it to be. There was just so much wasted time, it's hard to think about. I chose this topic because I would love to see the day when future students don't face this same obstacle when they move.
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