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Title: A Change in Atmosphere, A Change in Success

Although I have not had the chance to experience many competitive courses, I strongly believe that classes with an aggressive setup would produce at minimum an engaging environment. The primary reason that I advanced to college two years sooner than most is due to my experiences with our current education system, that is; public schooling seems to promote behavior that creates a lack of enthusiasm, passion, desire and motivation to learn. The environment that students are placed in simply exacerbates the dim perception that classes have come to represent which seemingly allows students to develop a uniform dislike or passionate hatred towards school.

It is clear to me that students are most frustrated with not only what they are learning but also the process used to teach the dense material. I am not suggesting that much of our educational content is invaluable but rather that such dense information needs to be presented in a manner which enthralls students rather than inhibits their attention.

Competition certainly falls into place here. Rather than teaching with the same style as our current mundane Power-Point's or screeching chalkboard lectures, why not provoke interest, communication, opinions and yes: competition. What do real workers in our country experience more of each day, Power-Point's and Lectures or competition? Sure there are a select few white-collared individuals who manage to survive their statistical presentations each day while hardly staying awake off their eight dollar caffeinated beverage, but that is not representative of the majority of careers. Most jobs are about competition, efficiency, communication, teamwork, leadership, skill, and creative thinking (and generic coffee from what I have experienced). As far back as I can recall, everyone who I have consulted has defined the function of school as: "preparing you for the real world" or "preparing you for the work place." Quite frankly, I am in a position with no repercussions from stating my opinion: school does neither of the two functions for me.

Even when considering the positive appraisals that my old high school was given, I feel that my short two years there was more of a barrier to success than a means to it. Competition and creativity was eliminated as soon as elective classes were slimed down. Now (as our officials claim) students are allowed to express themselves threw personal selection of course work (well yes, personal selection between two classes wow, I get two choices?!?). In the real world the entrepreneurs, hard workers, and leaders persevere. In school, mediocrity and below average is considered acceptable. Rather than grades reflecting ones relation to the most intelligent, it reflects the relation to the average.

Along with competition, we need to bring real world skills back into our schools education curriculum. Competition alone will most likely make a rather small yet still positive change, but with that idea of bringing adult concerns to the attention of malleable youths/young adults, great success could be achieved.

Learn more about this author, Franz Fleckenstein.
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