This is my second year in this calculus class and it seems like I won't be graduating on time this year either. I try my best to study, yet I just can't understand any of the lessons. I keep asking for special attention, but I guess with thirty other students in this class it's difficult to get much time alone. I feel like I"m in a concentration camp. I"m told what and when to learn and if I don't succeed I"m punished with a failing grade. I"m doing real well in my English class, but I guess it's not enough to pass calculus. I want to be a writer one day and at this rate I"ll be forty before I get out of high-school and start my career. I just don't understand why I have to have the same classes as my other friends if we have different plans for the future. This is just one of many students failed by the American educational system.
Today's educational system is a relic of the past. We set up a curriculum that in theory is there to educate every student that passes through its gate. This manner doesn't work because every student is different and work at different paces. Much like the student in the introduction a student may excel at one subject and be struggling in another subject. We set up standards for students and we neither have the time nor funds to educate them properly. I think that every student should benefit from the school system. No one should be forced to learn a skill that he will not need at any point in his life or career. I took two calculus classes and I have no memory of what I learned. I barely passed the course, and I feel that was a waste of a year in high-school. Instead of calculus I would have much rather chose another course where I might use the subject in the future. I want to play football one day and if I can't play football then I want to do something related to the sport. So instead of wasting a year in calculus I would have rather taken a weight training class.