By: Steph Wetzel, Caroline Schnabel, Nicole Kazmierczak, Kasey Vangelov, Madison Irene
It’s that time of year where National Honor Society WITS Mails were sent out for the Junior class, and class rank is causing stress to the Senior class. Students are so focused on the statistics, that they are not focusing on their education. Grades and resumes have become a competition amongst students to get the best grade. While schooling may need a healthy amount of competition, when it starts to take away from education there should be major concern. Students sacrifice their interests, understanding, and happiness to get a grade they think they need to get into college when they don’t need it, they just believe so because of the over-competitive atmosphere many students at East have to deal with.
Teachers and students have found that the overall competition among East’s students has lead to an excessive amount of stress. Junior Natasha Ionava spoke of how the attitude of many of the students directly affects her. She said, “Everyone is doing all they can to impress colleges, and it feels like I’m never doing enough. I can’t help comparing myself and feeling anxious. I feel like that’s all anyone talks about and it’s hard not to get tunnel vision about that stuff.”
“The really competitive atmosphere in our school requires us to take a HIGHLY unusual amount of AP classes. This creates a lot of unnecessary stress for students who feel like they need to keep up with the competition. The competition in East creates negativity between students, and it’s not a healthy environment to learn in,” Junior Peter Zeng said. Junior Abbas Rizvi had a similar thought. “East is a chill place, but the competition here is rough. It’s like the Olympic games up in here,” he stated. Some students have even approached teachers due to them being overwhelmed with their everyday, busy routine, but a lot of times they don’t directly. “Students haven’t exactly interacted with me possibly because I am a class advisor. I think competition is unnecessary and unhealthy. I know students who didn’t take several APs and still got into a good school. I don’t carry my SAT score above my head. It’s a number, and people are not numbers. I wish students worked harder to learn, not for the points,” English teacher Mrs. Schoeppich said. Teachers understand and express concern for the kind of stress students are under, and this stress is in part caused by the school’s attitude towards grades, which may be beyond beneficial. AP US and Euro teacher, Mr. Nogowski, said, “Students who just go for the grade, aren’t really learning long term.” Teachers are frustrated with the fact that some of their students don’t care about learning. Their goal is to be able for their students to understand the information they are teaching and to think for themselves, not just to spit back the information they are hearing. “I think that numerical grades are misleading because they don’t show the whole picture. They show a percent of knowledge out of a whole curriculum, whereas I believe students should be measured on their growth. Education is not one size fits all. I think education should involve topics more on literacy. The students should have to explain why they understand a concept. Fast paced education leads to misunderstanding,” Science Teacher Ms. Kobis stated.
The whole process of grading can be frustrating to some students, but it is also frustrating to many teachers as well. “Grading is a necessary evil in teaching. I don’t like having to rank my students. Many of students only care about that, ranking well in my class. The hard part about that is that it’s possible to get a good grade without learning. If I were able to rank my students based upon their level of understanding as opposed to the number the receive in the class, who was towards the top would definately change. A student shouldn’t strive for a 100. They should strive for understanding, whether or not a 100 comes from that,” Physics teacher Mr. Belling said.
Many students and teachers find competition beneficial in schooling when it is not too extreme. “In a way, when it’s not too over the top, we motivate each other. I think the competition is positive when its not too crazy. I know a bunch of people who are only taking certain AP’s or are getting more involved because their friends are. Whether it’s competitive or not, it really benefits them in the end,” Junior Trisha Pickelhaupt. Mr. Nogowski said, “Competition to a certain extent is healthy; East is the way it is largely due to competition, but constantly trying to compare yourself to others is not healthy.” Our school has become the way it is partially due to the students aspirations, but some teachers believe the attitude towards competition in East has escalated so that it is interfering with our ability to learn. “Economically, competition is a critical component of capitalism. Evolutionarily, it’s a postulate for the mechanism by natural selection-but qualitatively, no, academic competition is not, in itself, beneficial to learning,” Science teacher Mr. Harrison stated.
Overall, teachers are finding that students are sacrificing a good education to settle atmospheric expectations at East. Many sacrifice their interests for what classes they think they need to take; these thoughts may have come solely from East, but outside influence could also have an effect on the school. “I really think kids should take courses they enjoy. Sometimes they get too hung up on what they think colleges expect, that they abandon their interests. A while ago, a few of the arts teachers called some colleges to see what they preferred to see on a student’s resume. Whether it’s a sequence of LOTE or art classes, colleges prefer to see outside interest, regardless of what it is; it’s a shame when students don’t take courses they would like to instead of ones they’re pressured into,” Art teacher Mrs. Wilson said. She is not the only person who thinks it’s important for students to understand that they don’t always need to take what is assumed to look better. In fact, Sophomore Garret Speller said, “The attitude of East can bother me. The ultra-competitiveness can sometimes surpass desire to follow your passions. Once you get out into the real world, what are students going to do? They need real world skills not good grades.”
