success

i was just flipping through the channels during a late lunch about an hour or so ago and came across this news segment (headline news) reading facebook comments from individuals about how graduating high school students are not prepared for college. my experience has confirmed this amongst my peers. this whole 'no child left behind' mess for k-12 of the previous administration was one of the worst things done in the school system that i can remember. as one of the facebook commenters (a former college educator) wrote in "there isn't a success story for everyone."

upon reading this initially it sounds harsh.....very harsh. BUT, the problem is that it is not incorrect or false. it is just incomplete. what should have been stated is that "there isn't an IDENTICAL success story for everyone IN THE SAME FIELD IN THE SAME WAY." i am in no way trying to state that education isn't for everyone because i believe whole-heartedly that it is. however, what i am saying is that 'success' in formal education will be different and is relative for each student. there is no catch all program for education to make everyone a straight 'A' student. that is not everyone's path. and most importantly, that is not success for every student. that is not what education is about. the educational system in america is so screwed up, and it is only being exaggerated by educators that do not realize (either by choice or by ignorance) the intense responsibility that they possess.

school has become this institution to teach memorization and not how to apply the knowledge that is being gained. true success is being able to take what you learn and synthesize it into something useful.......NOT simply to be valedictorian.