The Importance of Academics in Our Schools

An influential philosopher and writer in the 1800s, Emerson led the Transcendentalist movement. He shared his idea on life, education, and a motley of topics through his essays. In his essay “Education”, Emerson claimed that schools should not have broad scopes, and individuals should arouse youth to pursue dreams. While youth should be inspired by others, schools should not remain as dry husks of academic progress, neglecting the arts and other studies; rather, academic institutions should embrace these fields in aiding the young along their paths of interest.

Modern schools are too obsessed with words like “GPA” and “SAT”. They covetously devour "valedictorian” and “AP”. Yet, reality cares nothing about an “A” in math on a report card. Because young students are not inspired by school and are taught at a young age to learn for a grade, schools should lessen the focus on academics while bring more weight to other fields of study; they should also allow students to take classes of their desire.

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Harvard, Yale, Princeton—these are just some of the prestigious colleges that pride themselves for their academic rigor.

Picking the "cream of the crop", admission officers will be less likely to accept applicants who have SAT scores lower than 2000. Although this issue has become less of a problem over the years, numerous colleges are still attracted to high standardized test scores and GPAs. These "examinations” of the individual are in no way evaluations of true ability. Furthermore, high schools exacerbate the issue by putting less weight in fields, like the arts, and more in core academic classes.

In Hamilton High School, there are honors and AP sciences and languages labeled with a 5.0 value, but band has a value of 4.0. By doing this, Hamilton not only values the core academic classes, but it also discourages participation in other subjects. Is a musician destined to be unsuccessful? An athlete destined to beg on the streets? Schools are rearing children to shun the professions they have interest in for the sake of their grade. Few children desire to be like Beethoven with his moving symphonies and fiery fervor.

Have schools influenced this? Nobel Laureate Saul Perlmutter was also a violinist who taught a course at UC Berkeley called “Music and Physics”, teaching through a combination of aspects of music with physics. People can be successful doing the things they enjoy, and schools should divide the importance of core academics among other fields as well to accommodate for these various interests.

Too often, schools limit the potential of individuals by setting a rigid course of classes instead of giving individuals free will. One example of this is BASIS. BASIS schools are known for their “academic rigor”, but this is it worth the lack of choice and will that BASIS enforces? When I was in 8th grade, I attended BASIS and was forced to attend AP World History, along with the 3 sciences and other core classes. I held enmity towards AP World History and physics, 2 classes I held no interest towards and fervently despised.

Of course, I had no choice in choosing my class schedule, and I ended up with a 2 on my AP World History exam. Given the opportunity, I would have gladly done computer science and psychology, but my school restricted me from doing so. Is it right to let schools rob students of passion and dreams? By forcing individuals to take classes they are indifferent towards, schools gear students towards a future of regret and depression, slaving away at a job they have no interest towards. Thus, schools should allow individuals to select their own class schedules to cater towards the individual.

Some say that core academics prepare individuals for the future and increase likelihood of employment. While this may be true, preparing oneself for a field of study they are passionate about is equally important. Also, even though employment provides the means of living for people, life may not mean much with a trivial job. A pianist playing piano of the streets for a living may find more happiness than an everyday worker flipping burgers at McDonalds. Life is truly meaningful if one can walk the path they desire, which makes factors like money less significant.

Without a doubt, there is no perfect education system that educates students while also providing autonomy for students to choose their future. However, schools should work towards a system that will give equal importance to core academic classes and other fields of study, like the arts. They should remain loose in allowing students to choose classes based on interests. By doing so, we will move towards a generation that cultivates the curiosity and passion of an individual rather than one that pushes the individual towards academic conformity.