Waking up to go to a school you don’t like, to pay attention to teachers you don’t want to listen to, and to memorize lessons just to pass a final, this is the routine most students go through. In the halls of MHS, there’s a question that all students keep asking themselves: Is high school even preparing me for a future?

Preparation or devastation

   Many students at Miami High believe that high school does not prepare you for the future. Sophomore Jessica Guerra believes the main problem is, “the teachers don’t teach you the important things in life like how to save money and other things that are important when becoming an adult.”

Sophomore Johanna Mendoza puts the blame on teachers who mainly focus on preparing you for the EOCs’ at the end of the year.

Learning vs. Passing

   Five times a week, eight hours a day, we sit in classrooms where teachers’ lessons of the day are focused on making the students pass their final exams. Is this wrong? Assistant principal for curriculum  Ms. Leal believes that there is a purpose for testing. “Exams at the end of the year allow us to know if the student has mastered the subject,” she said.

Junior Ismariam Ampie sees it two different ways. “Most teachers’ goal is to teach the student just so they can pass the test and graduate,” she said. “However, at the same time students can learn something from it that they might use in the future.”

Algebra 2 teacher Ms Mungia seems to agree that there is a problem with too much testing. “I do think that we teach to the test, but I can’t blame us. We have a lot of pressure on us to ensure our kids pass. Our salaries are tied to their scores, and the grade of the school depends on how kids perform. It’s a somewhat broken system,” she said. “Students are expected to memorize lessons as if they were robots and they don’t learn anything along the way.”

Future improvement

MHS students have serious ideas about the kinds of classes they would like to take at school. Senior Joseline Gomez said, “Throughout my years of high school, I would’ve liked to see the teachers teach us morals, respect, discipline, more equality in an evolving society, and politics. I feel as if these topics are not spoken for obvious reasons, but as a school environment, students should be able to express themselves in a righteous manner.”

Freshman Fatima Lopez said, “From what I’ve seen, teachers prepare students academically for college and passing the finals at the end of the year, but they fail to prepare us for the real world. For example, opening a savings account.”

Biology teacher Dr. Yoham seems to agree. “We should have classes that teach study habits,” he said. “How to deal with problems in a not so perfect world, how to register to vote, how to become financially independent, and the massive responsibility it takes to take care of a baby/family.”