We Need Structure

As I relax at home on this Sunday afternoon with an entire winter break ahead of me, I am forced to reflect on the discussions we have had regarding structure and freedom. The break ahead has about the least amount of structure a possible; I do not really need to be anywhere until 7:40 on January third. Although this seems great right now, it caused me to think about the benefits of a structured schedule. When we are in school, we learn from 7:40 until 2:50 (2:50 exactly… not when the bell rings). Then depending on each student’s schedule after school, they will at some point work on some homework so they can be prepared for class the next day. On the other hand, during this break I can try to educate myself some or I can take the lazy route and not do a whole lot. For example, today all I have done is watch football from 1:00 until about 7:15. Basically, what I am trying to say is that I think we all need structure in our lives. As teenagers, all we ever seem to want is freedom and time to do as we please. But I think that truly everyone desires some type of schedule. We act like free spirits but deep down everyone wants to be told what to do to some degree. And as a patriot, I think we all need to be told what to do a little bit. People think American students are falling behind students around the world but no one seems to want to do anything to fix it. The previous Ohio Governor wanted to add days onto the school year and we about had an outrage. What he was doing was taking away some of our unstructured and unplanned days and replacing them with structured education. I think that in order to maintain atop the world rankings in terms of educated children we need to make some sacrifices and I think structure is the way to do this. Young students cannot be trusted to learn on their own or review material on their own over the summer so the only way to fix this is to add a couple of school days on. Now granted, this is easy to say because I will be out of high school but I think it is something we should consider. And if we do not consider it, then no one should complain anymore about United States students moving down in the rankings.