Essays

Essay Guidelines

• • • General Literature Guidelines 

      • 12pt Times New Roman

      • Library appropriate language

      • No sexual content (anything past kissing is a no no)

      • No hate towards a specific person or group of people (LGBTQ, religions, races, etc.)

      • The TLC and the library staff have the final say if something is appropriate for the magazine or not

    • 2 essays per person quarterly

    • MLA format and citations 

      • MLA Guide 

    • 2000 words or less per essay

      • Works cited do not contribute to word count

    • Serious topics are fine as long as you are respectful and considerate

Example Essay Courtesy of Ash Shelledy

Why the American School System Needs to Change

It’s scientifically proven that homeschooled students are safer. Physically, mentally, and socially. While they may be socially awkward, they can get help when they need it online or go out and meet people in public. We are told to be ourselves and not to be afraid of who we are, but when students bully others and are told to stop, it NEVER stops.

The fact that students feel physically ill and have mental breakdowns at the thought of going to school should be a hint that something isn’t right. They give students an entire week off and kids are still miserable about going back. Students hate school, some just because it’s boring or doesn’t make sense, others because people are mean, the work is hard and mostly pointless, and almost no one does anything to help. Personally, I used to love school, until the teacher stopped caring, the kids stopped listening, and I stopped trying to fit in. Now, being myself gets me shoved around, hit, mocked, and laughed at.

People are physically beaten simply for being different. I’ve seen it in front of my own eyes and I’ve heard of it from friends and family. One person does the beating, the other might push the beater away in self-defense one time, hoping to get out of the situation. One has a broken arm, the other comes unscathed. They are both given the same punishment. If you ask me, that isn’t encouraging people to be different. People put on make-up and a smile to fit in, maybe because they simply love to do it, but otherwise, they do it to fit in, because they don’t want to end up like the kid who was hospitalized and given suspension for the same incident when they were the victim. Students are left fighting while teachers sit and watch until it’s over, then they let the other student skip out of the school and talk to them the next day. You’re probably thinking, huh. That’s oddly specific. Yes. It is. It is because I saw it happen with my own eyes. I understand it could be dangerous for a teacher to get involved but I thought the number one priority of the school is to keep students safe? I thought teachers were supposed to step in so the kid who’s getting beat doesn’t have to be hospitalized. My school made the news for bullying. The district created an anti-bullying plan and committee, it’s been two years, and no one has seen a difference. Parents and teachers tell kids to be themselves but at the same time they tell the students that being one way is wrong. That doing this or saying this is wrong. 

On another hand, mistakes are what make us human. They are how we grow. We are told this by parents, teachers, even pop culture, yet students are punished for making mistakes. You get a failing grade? Saturday school. We’ll give you an extra assignment and then you can take another test but we aren’t going to help you through it or explain it to you unless you’re a teacher's favorite. We’re going to give you more work to make you more stressed and give you less time to do it. We fail and it’s automatically our fault for not working and studying hard enough, even if we try our hardest. 

Studies show that the brain’s developmental time in a teenager doesn’t begin until 10 or 11 a.m., however, schools start classes at 8, expecting the student to be in full working order. Other studies show that teen brains don’t release melatonin, a chemical needed to sleep, until 11 p.m., and stop producing it around 8 a.m.. When a teenager wakes at 6, and heads to school, not only are their bodies still telling them to sleep, but their brains aren’t ready to work properly. Schools and teachers scold students for sleeping in class and getting bad grades, but students are scientifically not able to learn properly until later. 

Students are also punished for getting help. They call it cheating, I call it cooperation. What percent of entrepreneurs do you think never ask for help? What percent of them do you think look up things for maybe a week, then start their project without even thinking about asking for help or looking something else up, only using what they gathered earlier. My guess is none. No one is going to succeed like that. No future boss is going to say “I need those tax returns finished by noon, but don’t look at any of the financial statements. Do it all from memory. Schools are setting us up for failure by making us do everything alone. I’ve never cheated because I’ve always been too afraid. I’ve always been too afraid to speak up, too afraid to say. “Hey! I need help!” because I’m taught that asking for help when doing something very important for your future is not allowed. I’m taught that I can’t look up answers or ask a friend for help. Ever. If I did that in the “real world,” I would fail before I even started. Tests should be on application of the concept, not on memorization of that concept and how it works. 

Now, on a less scientific note, student’s themselves have told stories of how schools have set them up for failure. I have an example that multiple people claimed to have done, including myself. This person, I’ll call them Student A, broke their hand right before finals. You would think their first thought was something like “Oh crap, I broke my hand!” On the contrary, they broke their hand and immediately said, “How am I going to do finals?” This is what the American education system has taught us. They teach us to value our education more than our physical well-being. I know many, many people who have claimed to not be sleeping because they stay up late doing homework. More evidence of us being taught that education is more important than our own health.

Speaking of homework, many students have claimed that homework should be illegal, and some have even started petitions hoping to get rid of it. It adds hours of work onto already unstable teenagers that were just forced to sit and deal with the same stuff for about 7 hours. It deprives us of sleep and time to ourselves. We don’t even get paid for it. There have been a few claims that homework may as well be slavery. While I disagree and believe that is an exaggeration, I don’t entirely believe they are wrong. One definition of slavery is “a condition compared to that of a slave in respect of exhausting labor or restricted freedom.” Compared to that definition, homework, or even school itself, could be considered slavery. While this is most definitely not the type of slavery you would think of, exhausting labor is what most students consider homework to be and restricted freedom is what school would be considered. 

Back to the topic of “real world,” they say they’re preparing us for the “real world.” Are they saying these first 18 years were just the tutorial? That none of this matters and we could have figured most of it out in the beginning? They’re right. It’s a tutorial, but it’s a tutorial that, according to multiple teachers, is 98% a waste of time. Elementary teaches you the basics. Things you’ll need and use in life. Speaking, reading, writing, basic math. Highschool teaches you all of the stuff you will never need. They give you required classes such as math and english but most people will never use most of what they learn. The point of the chosen classes is to help you figure out what you actually want to do. They teach you what you think you will use. 

School isn’t about learning anymore, it’s about passing. 

Works Cited

Makayla. “Is it True that 98% of What you Learn is a Waste?” Encyclopedia.com, 24 Oct. 2019, https://www.encyclopedia.com/daily/is-it-true-that-98-of-what-you-learn-is-a-waste/#:~:text=Some%20 lifelong%20 teachers%20 point%20to,in%20how%20the%20brain%20learns. Accessed 9 Jan. 2023. 

“Teenage Brains Don’t Work Before 10 a.m..” The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Sun, 14 Mar. 2013, https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/bs-xpm-2013-03-15-bs-ed-high-school-20130315-story.html. Accessed 9 Jan. 2023.

Prywes, Michael. “Sleep Experts Say That Work and School Shouldn’t Start Until After 10am.” Lifehack, https://www.lifehack.org/357623/sleep-experts-say-that-work-and-school-shouldnt-start-until-after-10am. Accessed 9 Jan. 2023. 

“Slavery.” Google, Oxford Languages, https://www.google.com/search?q=slavery+definition&rlz=1CAZICU_enUS1020&oq=slavery+&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0i433i512l2j46i512j0i433i512j0i512l2j0i433i512j0i131i433i512j0i512.2832j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&safe=active&ssui=on. Accessed 9 Jan. 2023.