I began writing this a while ago, but, of course, I’ve been too busy with end-of-year homework to sit down and write it all at once. I read an editorial entitled “The 40-year-old high schoolers” that was published in the Journal Sentinel on May 21 and written by a high school teacher from Wauwatosa, Tessie Tennyson. She says that students today have no drive to do any work, and that their parents think that it is alright to do work for them. She also claims that students should be prioritizing their school work above anything else. I guess I hold some bias, seeing as the article was directly attacking a group of which I am a part, but I honestly think that Mrs. Tennyson is completely off the mark.
I suppose that a lot of people have misconceptions about what we teenagers do on a daily basis, but here’s the thing: not all teens strive to get through high school only doing the bare minimum or “pass the class with as little effort as possible.” I’m sure that this article does apply to some students, but in my experience, most teenagers are far from slackers and most parents are far from slacker-enablers.
Ms. Tennyson asserts that in today’s society, learning is not considered important, whereas grades are. I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this, but grades actually are extremely important. Learning, of course, is the whole point of school, but grades are what get a student into college along with extracurricular activities, which Ms. Tennyson later says should be sacrificed for homework.
The thing is, when I’m applying for college, there are some classes in which the material is not crucial for my educational growth. Gym class is the perfect example (no offense to my gym teachers, though - I liked most of gym, but the written tests on pickle-ball were a little much). What will matter is the grade that I got, as that will be factored into my grade point average. I know that learning is more important than grades, I’m not saying that it’s not, but I just want people to understand why students get so worked up about grades: they determine what our college options will be.
Ms. Tennyson continues by saying that we cannot bear being given difficult assignments. Here’s at least my reality: a significant portion of the homework I get is busywork. I admit that there are certain assignments that I dread even though they can teach me a lot, but I would definitely take a challenging yet meaningful assignment over one that’s pure busy work. Lately I’ve noticed that there are certain teachers who treat their class as more of an art class, in which I’m significantly downgraded if my poster isn’t colorful enough or my video isn’t creative enough. I can’t assume that this is the sort of work that Ms. Tennyson is assigning, but I know that this is an epidemic in high school.
I read another article awhile ago that said that students in Finland do the best on international standardized tests, and they generally have about half an hour of homework a night. One student who did a foreign exchange program from Finland to the U.S. said that it seemed like every assignment was spending hours gluing things on poster boards. She had to repeat a year of school when she got back to Finland because the U.S. had prepared her so poorly.
I feel that many adults have the impression that students come home from school and watch T.V. all night. My friends and I stay up until the early hours of the morning doing homework, not watching T.V. I have track practice after school so I can’t start homework until about six or seven, so I usually end up going to bed around midnight, after having done practically nothing but school, track, and homework all day.
You might ask me, then, why I don’t quit track. The thing is, I love track. In her editorial, Ms. Tennyson says that students and parents complain that there’s not enough time to do homework because of sports, plays, jobs, social events, etc. and that school should have priority over everything. This is probably the part of her editorial with which I disagree the most. School is supposed to give us the tools to be happy and successful in the future, but what about now? Shouldn’t we be happy and do what we love now? We are all given different gifts, and if someone’s isn’t academics but is something else, shouldn’t he or she have the chance to shine in another field?
She says that “assignments apparently should be lessened to accommodate basketball, cheerleading, McDonald’s and the prom.” Does she honestly, seriously think that we should stay home from prom to do homework? Prom? I recently went to prom two days before the A.P. Biology exam, and I saw my friend there with her biology flashcards along with her. This made me feel guilty about not studying too, but then I asked myself if what I wanted to remember from prom night is the definition of a bryophyte.
Ms. Tennyson wondered “how we would get world leaders, new inventions, top-notch mechanics and intelligent conversation from each crop of graduating seniors.” Here’s what I wonder: if teachers don’t respect, appreciate and even enjoy the kids, how are the students going to do well? Doesn’t every story about great teachers begin with the teacher giving the students newfound hope and confidence in themselves? The only way a teacher can push students is by believing that they can handle being pushed, and motivating the kids to believe it about themselves. Otherwise, what example, hope or inspiration is the teacher giving? There are already many adults who assume that teenagers can’t have or are unwilling to have a positive effect on the world, and I would hope that if one group of people doesn’t feel this way, it’s teachers.
I feel that Ms. Tennyson's editorial made far too many generalizations. I have often felt classified as apathetic, indolent, and even loud by people who don’t even know me, just because of my age. If you’ve taken the time to read all of this, well thanks, first of all, but please understand that not all teenagers are unconcerned about the state of the world and our place in it.
