A devastating truth lies in the education system: the fact that learning revolves not around the pursuit of knowledge, but around the letters that line up on your report card. The average student strives not to discover and explore their curriculum, but to obtain the maximum point value or highest letter grade. So what has come of our innate and incredible desire to learn? To unfold the world and divulge its most precious and awe-striking secrets? Where is the innovation?

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson once said, “We educate out the curiosity.” I witness the validity of this statement each day I walk the school halls. Yes, I realize I harbor an advantage by attending Algonquin, one of the best public schools in one of the best states for education in the country; I do not take that for granted. Yet this does not extenuate the fact that our education system holds flaws. I have been told by several teachers tirelessly to care less about grades, GPAs, and college and more about actually comprehending and analyzing the information I am being taught. The irony? They proceed to hand out more work, accumulating to nights burning the midnight oil toiling over mindless tasks.

Now, this is not to suggest that every article of schoolwork is so-called “busy-work.” However, perhaps we need a new stimulus for students. We have the capacity to care about what we are being taught beyond the grade. We just need an opportunity to learn the information disregarding the incentive of a decent grade. It is that motivation to earn a high mark that inhibits our ability to genuinely learn.

I have had wonderful experiences at this school, from teachers to classmates to material. And I love being here; I relish learning. Yet I find myself growing more stressed each year, more frustrated each day with the fact that I am not learning in order to expand my economy of thought, but to receive an A on the next exam. A slew of factors are at fault here, including the education system, the government, colleges, standardized testing, and students. Each of us carries part of the burden of our crumbling system.

This is a problem worthy of national attention; an issue that will require each one of us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and galvanize the country into a revolution of education, of learning, and of the mind. In order to perpetuate the innovation that drives society, we must start by reintroducing that creativity to the youth. We must spark the curiosity for education rather than discourage it. Let us learn simply for the hallowed pursuit of knowledge.