Good morning, my name is Rachel Strube and I am
running for vice president alongside Michael Morrow.
Today I would like to address the issue of education in
America. But, before I begin I would like to tell you more
about myself. I have been on the Girls Varsity Badminton
team for three years now and play third doubles. In this
sport the main characteristic is honesty because you make
the calls. If you lie you can be disqualified. That’s how i
view life: honesty is the most important characteristic in a
person. I feel that I am a very honest person, which is
beneficial to Americans because I will tell you everything
that is going on. Other things about myself include being
an art student, I teach children how to swim and I will be
attending Farmingdale State College this coming fall to
study dental hygiene. Now to the problem at hand:
eduaction. The U.S. is ranked 36 in the world overall in
education and have only a 74.7% graduation rate. This is
just sad because we are supposed to be role models to
other countries, yet, many surpass us in education,
healthcare and other categories. The main problem is how
the government is trying to solve the issue with education
with new ideas instead of taking ideas from countries that
excel in education. Not saying we copy them but, we can
at least base some decision off of what they do to keep
education and graduation rates so high. I’d Like to talk
specifically on the Common core. Common core is a
horrible idea because teachers cannot be themselves
around students. They have to follow a specific curriculum
and time frame for each lesson which doesn’t alway work
for every student. My sister began her college career
wanting to become a teacher. This year she had to intern
at a school and assist the teacher with a lesson. She
quickly changed her mind about wanting to be a teacher
because the common core standards require her to not be
as helpful as she wants to be. This just proves why we
don’t have the best teachers: we are turning them away
from becoming teachers. Now I will tell you what current
teachers think about the common core: (Lobasco story).
She is one of the most memorable teachers I had in my
childhood, she got me into art and it changed my life. Now
she can’t even be herself? She’s in her mid to late 50s and
returning back to school in order to be herself. Michael
and I plan on creating an education system where teacher
have room to bend lessons to fit their students needs. We
want to reward students who excel in school so all
students have something to work for and they don’t feel
they are learning unimportant things. We want to create
more classes that teach life skills that students will use for
the rest of their lives such and classes that teach how to
do taxes, pay bills, etc. We feel that students these day
have it very easy compared to other generations so we
want to raise the general passing grade to a 68 so
students have to put in that extra bit of effort. Teacher
salaries will increase and years of school required will too,
so that schools are filled with the best teachers there are.
It is clear that some parents aren’t very involved so we are
going to make parent-teacher conferences frequent and
mandatory throughout the year. Finally, we realize that
some school districts have a more updated environment
when it comes to technology. We plan on increasing the
budget for low income schools so they can afford proper
technology and more extracurricular activities. Thank you
for your time and have a wonderful day!
Vote Morrow for a better tomorrow!