Steven Needham

Eng.220
Maya Alapin
4-16-15
My Educational Manifesto
Visions for Education
Introduction
Throughout college we are constantly reminded of the powerful
tool education is and how it can help us carve a path into what
hopefully is a fulfilling and rewarding life and career. As a student I am
constantly questioning the system I was brought up in and was
constantly felt as if much of my time was wasted on courses or tests
that didnt really matter this has at least personally hindered the great
education I have received. As a student soon in pursuit of a masters
degree I often questioned where I would be if we didnt put such a high
attention on standardized tests and general education and what would
happen if instead the system was focused on the growth they can
implement on people to be prepared for the real world by that I mean
teaching us to be good at business, creativity, management, or just
giving us opportunity to gain training for our futures at an earlier age
no matter the field we decide to go into.
Issues

As a product of the system that is currently in place my biggest

complaint is the overly aggressive attention we put on a very select
group of subjects. Starting at a young age our system promotes the
importance of 3 genres of study and that is language, science and
arithmetic and is constantly suggesting that every other subject is less
important and extracurricular. By no means am I imposing that the 3
subjects are not important, I am just proposing that there needs to be
more considered in a students education that just 3 subjects and a
students test scores in these subjects shouldnt be all a school is
worried about for a students career. My other complaint is the lack of
career skills developed during secondary education. At the University
level and in my own education I found that my professional
development was in some ways stunted because the amount of course
work I had to complete that had literally no relevance at all to my
major studies thus removing time that could have been more relevant
in my field or just removing valuable time I could have spent studying
relevant topics.
Visions
My vision for education is simple I want to see less testing so
that way we can focus on teaching and preparing to students for the
future as good people with a great useful education. I also would like to
see a system that is focused on student success in both in and out of
the classroom we should be encouraging students to pursue career

goals and ideas from an earlier age. This being said I thing the need to
create a system where we actually do focus on outputting students to
be successful, creative and individual thinking people.
What I want to see in early education in a well-rounded
education that doesnt focus strictly to the test thus making all
subjects more equal. This making writing, reading, history, arithmetic,
science and all extracurricular activities more equal. I think we need to
change are view making extracurricular more co-curricular. Last but
not least I think we need to stifle standardized tests only making
students take them 3 times through a career (5th, 8th and 12th grade)
allowing teachers to focus on child needs.
Secondary education needs a lot of new focus and new direction,
I want to see more chances for students to build a future from this
level of education and I want to see a push for students to develop
career skills. The programs that I think have it right and we need to
model them are the magnet schools, these programs generally some
sort of audition or interview to get into thus making it exclusive but if
every school at least took some what of a model of these schools and
implemented it I think we would see success in the class room and real
world. The thing that I found so helpful is the extra time dedicated to a
major which prepares students more for college. These schools have
an extra hour dedicated to there school time and classes are more

geared to the interest of the students thus creating a healthy goal

driven atmosphere that produces professionals.
University level education is highly sought after in the U.S but
that does not mean there are not flaws from my personal perspective
which is supported by statistics we do have a system in need of
direction. My biggest issue with most post secondary education is the
need to now continue the course of our previous education instead of
directly impacting us to enter our chosen careers. I think that we need
to cut back on prerequisites and push the major studies. The fact that
a major in music or dance requires as much academic prerequisites as
an engineer or astrophysics major is not ok. I think schools should
really allow faculty from respective departments to dictate what
courses students need would help but I think we need to model the
tech schools, conservatories, and private schools and figure how to
offer this education to a large university
My personal vision for my education is to pursue an education
that will better prepare me for a career in music although UNM has
done me a great deal in making me competitive in my respective field I
can only imagine where I could be if I didnt have to write so many
papers or stay up all night studying for an exam. If nothing else I think
had I had a more tailored education I would have finished earlier
because I would have had to carve out more time that didnt exist to
practice my career skills. That being said I will be pursuing my masters

at a school that has what I was looking for and that is the Peabody
Conservatory
Outcomes
Positive:
K-12:

Students will receive a more well-rounded and usable education.

Teachers can focus on students progress instead test scores.

Magnet:

Higher test scores and success rates.

Students will be more prepared for the future.
Students will have a more positive catered experience at school.
Learn skills that will last a lifetime.
Prepared straight out of high school.

University:

Geared for more success in the chosen field.

More time to study major.
More time spent on major studies means you can obtain less

education and still be career ready.

Stress spent on courses that may have little impact on success.

Negative:
K-12

Less testing can allow possible decrease in select topics.

Magnet:

Longer school days.

Not cost effective. (expensive)
Hard to obtain at a public school level.

University:

Students may become less well-rounded.

Works Cited
"Magnet Schools & Career and Technical Academies | Clark County School District,
Magnet Schools & Career and Technical Academys." Magnet Schools Career and
Technical Academies. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.
Peabody Institute." Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. N.p., n.d. Web.
17 Apr. 2015.
US News. U.S.News & World Report, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.
Garrett, Scott. "Returning Education to the Basics by Leaving No Child Left Behind |
Human Events." Human Events. 16 July 2007. Web. 1 Apr. 2015.