The education system is the concern of every good politician, between technology advances, program transitions, poverty restrictions, nutrition, bullying, standardized testing and over-priced higher education. It invariably raises a lot of questions and controversy.  

One of the most interesting things about the human species is that we are individual and different. We all go to school and have different ideas, contrasting opinions, diverse skin, mismatched thoughts and contradistinct hobbies. Our attention is captivated by different objects, we believe in different philosophies, different political views and different morals. What makes someone human is the combination of various experiences, facets and learning processes brought together with perception.

I believe that if you can paint a beautiful picture, act passionately in a play, sing flawlessly, but you can’t do calculus to save your life, it shouldn’t count against you. Sure, calculus is somewhat important in the “real world,” but the “real world” isn’t all calculus. If you’re planning to pursue these creative endeavors and pursuits then you deserve the opportunity to explore them. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and the one size fits all approach doesn’t work when everyone is incredibly abstract. Nobody likes to be graded on their failure.

I believe you should be graded on effort- if you’re in last place but you give it your best then you’re just as good as the person in first. True intelligence is about trying your hardest and staying infinitely curious.

We need to to reevaluate the how we teach, examine and challenge students. The No Child Left Behind policy is, more often than not, backfiring. Though, the program’s intentions seem philanthropic and beneficial, standardized testing swallows up the joy of learning and subtracts from imagination. This “one size fits all” method is convenient but defective; it’s appraising one institute above another, one professor above another, and most of all, one student above another. This arbitrary structure isn’t honoring out-of-the-box thinking; it’s cheating student out of fulfilling creativity—true brilliance.

We aren’t clones of one individual, we are ourselves. Our intriguing, beautiful unique selves. And as a consequence, it warrants differences in the way each student learns. Trying your best goes completely unrecognized in schooling institutes, unless you can reflect it in the gradebook.