Education Conformity Essay

Schools want students to be allowed or encouraged to think for themselves and pursue their own interests, but schools also believe that it is right in some circumstances to encourage conformity in order to socialize students. This could mean looking to increase schools’ statistics on how many young adults graduate with high GPAs and good resumes. Going through the choices found in an adolescents everyday life, one must be reassured that they can take what class they desire instead of wondering how many AP classes they should take for the year to boost themselves. Students feel pressure everyday to be a certain way in order to achieve what they want to be in the near future because of competitiveness and societal expectations, and shouldn’t have to spend all their money on getting an education that gets higher value.

In today’s society, AP classes are seen as a way to give students the academic experience of college classes which helps prepare for future schooling they have ahead, and to earn early college credit. This gives these teenagers excellent things to write in their resume, allowing them to get a job that seeks potential. But from an economic perspective, the incentive is definitely not seen. The most notable example of this would be the extra tutoring and assistance that parents and their kids pursue for their grades and AP exam scores, which could cause more pressure to form for already-stressed students. Kicking out college courses in highschool seems rather far fetched when some colleges make it difficult by not accepting certain AP credit. Meanwhile at other colleges, which could be inconvenient to where families live, students already having the AP credit could save plenty of money according to the expense of education lately. Through all this trouble, we could have people in schools learning things at an easier pace instead of constricting our abilities to a higher standard.

Furthermore, it’s beyond obvious students can feel social pressure to take AP classes. Statistics wise, it’s been said that in 2019, more than 500,000 students registered themselves online for over one million AP exams at 1360 schools through Total Registration's service. In our communities, it’s clear that students who don’t take certain AP classes tend to feel average in schools where “the smart people” who take these classes show patterns that reveal good paths drawn ahead. In other words, it’s basically another term kids use to separate themselves from the rest. Although it isn’t a marvelous idea to push people into coursework they aren’t prepared for, it’s a common occurrence for those with authoritarian parents who think advanced courses will help their kids. This is because of the stereotype: regular classes are too average for today’s college expectations. Schools can change this common thought by encouraging kids to balance their needs instead of piling pressure and encouraging conformity through these classes that are expected to be taken.

Despite all this, there are people that argue students should be taking these AP classes because the curriculums offer challenging work that reflects what they will face in college- this way they won’t get slammed with a load of work. In reality, to view the value of the class or the test grade as the same would be a rare sighting especially since each college has their own reputation and values. And as for others, they try to fix the core problem which could be the students paying more attention in class and learning how to not procrastinate. This couldn’t be more false because there are teachers that could use some work as well. To inspire passion in our schools and instill it in the students, our community needs more teachers that are passionate about what we learn.

Instead of pressuring adolescents to take all advanced classes in today's society, we should be motivating them to take into account their own individuality and do what they think is right for them. Classes that are expected to be taken because of your common surroundings could just drain your money, add immense pressure, and distract you from where you want to head in life. 

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