American High Schools

Although American high schools are pretty good at providing a decent education to all kids who want it, there are some issues in high schools across America. As a current high school student, I have noticed some of these problems in American high school. Kids aren’t as motivated to learn and high schools don’t always provide the kind of education that kids need and want. I do believe that there are solutions to these problems in American high schools. 

                The motivation of kids to learn in high schools has become a major problem. Kids have a wonderful opportunity in America to get a proper education, but don’t always take advantage of that opportunity. In the essay, A Model for High Schools, David S. Broder talks about a program called Gateway, which educates kids who were not motivated and ended up dropping out of high school. Broder blames the reason on why kids drop out comes from the way current high schools are educating kids. Broder writes, “…teenagers with few credits, low grade point average and a host of personal problems-the challenge of a tough curriculum, backed by skillful teaching in small classes and plenty of personal counseling, can be a path to success.” I agree with Broder, in that if high schools change to be more like that, students will be more motivated in school. High schools in America should have smaller classes and a well taught, challenging curriculum.

                Another problem in American high schools is that high schools don’t provide the type of education that kids need. Todd Gitlin claims that there is not enough liberal arts being taught in high school. He states, “A strong liberal-arts curriculum could teach them about their history, their social condition, themselves.” In high school we do not have that much liberal-arts teaching and Gitlin makes a good claim about how liberal-arts could help students. Changing the curriculum in schools could help students in the future with what they will need to know for college and their careers after college.

                There are other issues in high schools around the nation, but I think the biggest issues are that kids aren’t very motivated, because of how and what they are taught, and that high schools are not teaching students everything that they will find useful in the future. High schools in America need to change to have more benefit for the students.