Erica Goldson, valedictorian from the Coxsackie-Athens High School graduating class of 2010, gave a somewhat controversial speech during the school’s graduation ceremony. Goldson ascertained that the goal of the American education system is to create a standardized method of imparting information on students rather than aiming to encourage each individual’s distinctive qualities and develop students’ understanding and personal drives. The majority of high-achieving students, including myself, will most likely concur with Goldson’s views on American education and would be able to gather several points of defense for the assertions made in her speech.
To convey her message to the audience, Goldson relies heavily on her personal experiences competing for the number-one spot in her class to showcase evidence of the dilemma that she, along with many other students, experience in schools all across America. First, she recounts her experiences focusing on short-term goals that distract from actual learning. She asserts that too often teachers will expect students to memorize something for an upcoming quiz, test, or exam rather than encouraging students to
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Students should not have to be concerned about every tenth of a point on a pop quiz, which student is awarded valedictorian or who just barely made the top ten. A student should have a deep desire to learn about the world, and each individual in a student’s life, especially teachers and administrators, should be encouraging young people to pursue knowledge. Unfortunately, our educational system does not provide the proper environment for this type of exciting scholastic stimulation. Instead, students aimlessly work their way through piles of work that will only useful for passing some quizzes, a test or two, and eventually an exam. Then this cycle starts over again. Students are simply not learning. This is the point that Erica Goldson succeeds at