“I’ve never let school interfere with my education”

One of my favorite quotes of all time, as uttered by Mark Twain himself.

After coming from a highly competitive high school, where grades most certainly made the person, and continuing on to an institution of higher learning where the stakes are just as high, if not higher, I think it is vital that students step  back and reflect on why they are here. I like to think that I have found myself in college. Yes, it sounds cheesy (this is Wisconsin, after all), and maybe even cliché, but it’s true. For me, high school was about going through the motions: studying for exams so I could get the A, scanning books in order to complete study guides, and gritting my teeth over the stack of papers that never seemed to leave my desk. College has been a life experience, an education, not only in academics, but also in life, myself, and what I want to do with my future.

In lieu of the aforementioned Mark Twain quote, I firmly believe that I have cemented my future through my experiences in campus, state, and national politics. This is not to say that my lectures, discussions, and labs have not been phenomenal, but it is to say that one’s education is not complete without these extracurricular experiences.

I also think that the heavy emphasis on grades, multiple choice exams, and other forms of evaluation that simply rely on rote memorization are overused, and over-valued. Encouraging students to simply rehash what they have heard in lecture does not teach them to think critically, or evaluate the information that they are receiving. It simply teaches them to copy lecture slides and repeat the information back to the professor verbatim.

For my project, I would like to talk to a variety of professors and TAs at the University of Wisconsin and from my high school about alternative methods of evaluation and learning for students. I would also like to talk to students about how their stress levels correlate with the types of evaluation that are used in their various classes. Finally, I would like to provide students with an anonymous feedback system, in which they are able to suggest new learning mechanisms to professors and to the University. Our country lags behind in terms of education, not because we do not care about teaching our students, but because we are not targeting reforms properly and using the resources that we have available most efficiently. I think it is the job of students who live and breathe the system everyday to let educators and our governments know that we can no longer accept the status quo if we want to build for our future.