"Students Sound Off," is an ongoing student blogger contest aimed at providing students a loud and clear voice in the education debate presented by HuffPost Education and Get Schooled. As the second post in the series, student Kelly Tan answers the question:
If you were given the chance, how would you help kids at your school graduate?
Failing high school is not as rare as we can hope. This is a contradiction with the "superpower" image the U.S. hopes to maintain, and contradictions cannot exist. What this means for this country is that it will eventually be phased out by another country, one where education is a priority. A country where a high majority of its high school seniors actually graduate and go on to receive a higher education. These are the people that will make a country great, but they are also the people that we lack. It is clear that if the U.S. wants to continue to be a superpower, it will have to motivate students to succeed. People, especially around adolescence, feel a strong sense of loneliness. When you're lonely, it's difficult for hope to grow. Some adolescents often believe that there is no reason to do reason to really try at anything because the end doesn't vary, regardless of how you got there.
They don't seem to realize that the road to the end is the best part, simply because they have no one close to point it out.
In order to increase the rate of high school graduates, schools should promotes clubs and other school communities. A byproduct of promoting school communities is the formation of bonds. Adolescents spend time with people who they share the same qualities, values, strengths, and weaknesses. People see how many people are like them. They gain friendship and companionship. These friends will provide an unspoken encouragement for success andambition. They might even inspire competition, the drive for improvement. They will do many things for students, and won't stop at encouraging students, but will continue on to help students realize that the journey is meant to be enjoyed.
The best part about this plan is that it is budget friendly. Clubs can hold their own fundraisers if the need of funds should ever arise. Students can manage themselves; responsibility is another welcome side effect. The members of the club will learn to depend on others; a skill valuable if they should ever find themselves in a position where interactions are involved.
Today's youth will learn the tools they'll need to become the efficient and productive workforce of tomorrow. They'll gain the drive this country needs to pull itself out of the dark ages and into one of peace and prosperity. A period we need direly need as a failing nation as of this millennium. This plan for the schools of the United States will succeed. We're all lonely people. It'll do us all a great deal if we knew that sometimes life isn't as lonely as we make it out to be. Humans are social creatures. Would it be so wrong for me to infer that people would do much betterif there's someone doing it with them, no matter what they want to accomplish?
Are you a high school student who wants to sound off to the HuffPost community and win a chance to blog with a celebrity, politician or activist? Find out how on our contest page or read other essays by high school students.
This contest is brought to you by Waiting For "Superman".