Education Madness #1 – million things to do before university

As much as my title sounds like Listmania’s “1000 Books to Read Before You Die” or “1000 Movies to Watch Before Apocalypse”, this entry is certainly not about the fun, wacky, and wild things you can only do during your high school life.  It’s rather what you must do before you can get into university.

Our full course starts off with a little hors d’oeuvre (am I spelling this correctly?): honors, APs, and IBs.  These so-called “advanced” courses are the option for those looking to excell.  According to modern standards, that means getting into a competitive university.

But advanced programs are not enough, as colleges are looking for complete packages–perfect children.  So, there’s surely more to come about: SAT/ACT tests, team sports, varsity athletics, extra-curricular activities, and the other 999,999 things.

Things are getting out of hand at the local high school.  Gone are the days of enjoying painting or textiles class….actually letting children have fun choosing their courses.  Nowadays, HS students and their counselors care for academic excellence.  Why take a normal textiles course when you can take IB Art HL; why choose a simple class like honors history over AP World HIstory?  The simplest answer is: to impress college admissions.

There are more and more students getting HS level education, which automatically translates to more of them applying for college.  Surely, there must be some traffic congestion.  That is why students try hard to become the sought out Porche or Mercedez; but apparently, that’s not even enough; they must be a custom made sports car with all the “bling” that shows how much passion they have for their subject of study.  This is happening today: with admission rates of lower than 10% in the recent years and also record breaking application numbers, Ivy League schools expect their applicants to be the cream of the crop.  If the wannabe doctor wants to go to pre-med at Harvard, then she’s probably going to have to think hard about taking a general subject she likes over the gruesome IB Diploma program.

This is not much of an academic problem, because students are surely pushing to challenge themselves.  The problem is pushing too hard.  Instead of having the chance to follow their dreams, HS students will rather strive for that long awaited seat in a prestigious college, which at least gives them a guarantee that they’ll get some kind of job in the future.  There’s still following passion, but no longer the wild, artistic fantasy that allow them to expand horizons, to break out of the box.  Instead, the box is getting smaller and smaller, forcing students into a racetrack–warranting them to walk the same path to what society calls “success”.

[Image courtesy: http://community.livejournal.com/ibscrewed/tag/humour]