Sophomore Ricky Le sluggishly makes his way to first period. He sits down at the back corner of the classroom and waits for the teacher to assign the class yet another page of bookwork to do. He then plugs in his headphones and lays his head down on his desk. Ten minutes before class is over, he gets up, copies a neighbor’s work and proceeds to his next class.

Le believes that the American education system is the one to blame for the lack of motivation in students and argues that it does not allow students to reach their full potential. Le believes that grades are not a representation of a student’s true knowledge.

“Grades don’t reflect how smart a person is,” Le said. “[They] reflect a [person’s] work ethic. Lots of extremely smart students make average, or below average grades because of lack of motivation.”

However it goes both ways. Some students get away with doing very little or no work, and still maintain good grades and a good GPA.

“There was a guy in my class who slept half the time, and never did any of his homework but still [maintained] a 90 average,” Le said. “The unnecessary tests and busy work do not [benefit] us.”

In Le’s opinion, the system lacks creativity and the opportunity for students to grow. Because students spend a large portion of their lives in school, Le believes they should be able to flourish.

“We’re at school for seven hours a day, five days a week,” Le said. “The school should focus on making it an [exciting] experience.”

Ricky thinks the school environment is one factor that contributes to the system’s poor progress.

“Students are crammed into a room [and] forced to take notes the teacher’s way” said Le, “Most of the [assignments] are given to us to keep us busy.”

Because each person is different, Le disapproves that all students have to learn and study the same way. For instance, Cornell notes are a school-wide skill that almost every student is expected to know and use, however Le argues it is not important in the real world.

“I don’t need Cornell notes,” Le said. “Cornell notes feel forced, it [does not feel natural].”

Le thinks the system should focus on each individual personally, and use different skills and techniques to benefit everyone.

“Instead of seeking out a person’s strong points and weaknesses, the school system expects everyone to be able to do the same work as others,” Le said. “High school is memorizing facts for a test that you’ll forget two days later, the stuff you learn now probably won’t affect your job in ten years.”