Junior Year

As the tension builds at junior year's close and the economy further delves into a massive grave, considerate of those citizens it's taking along with it, the press for the perfect University is ever worrisome and stressful.

We entered high school, some fearing this year from the start, others uncaring until they realized that they're not getting into college and others mixed betwixt the two scenarios, with a sense that we can be all we can be.

We went to our guidance counselors, appreciating and listening, believing and trusting in their every word. We took advantage of their employment, knowing both they and we would benefit, only to find it seems that their function is not to guide us for the future (i.e. college, career) but to guide us out of high school. How does that work to our benefit?

At some point along our grade school lives we should have been informed of the criteria of a guidance counselor. How long were they there to guide us if at all? To me, guidance counselors know nothing more than the credits we need to get us into college. There's a consensus among we college bound teens. The guidance counselor is there merely to inform us of the amount of credits needed to graduate, the service hours needed to graduate, and tell us whether or not our grades are up to par. We then have the BRACE advisor. We then have the School Psychologist. We then have the Behvioral Specialist. Are these not the jobs of the guidance counselor?

Someone might say, we should have grasped this concept some time ago. Nobody informed us that corruption, too, occurs in a facility whose purpose it is to better our lives, better our country. Someone might say, in the real world, you won't be told, you should infer. Again, under circumstances, I suppose, just as we cannot always have faith in our government, we cannot always have faith in our education system.

Now we are met with an economic crisis. Needless to say funding for education does not seem to be a top priority. Of course on the surface we are trying to accomodate the needs of the school system.

Who do the children that want to succeed turn to? Someone might say, be grateful for the education that you receive because in other countries, in other parts of the United States even, children have no guarantee to an education. This is true. However, given that we are not part of that faction of the nation or of the world, and given that we do have the opportunity to receive a teriffic education, equipped with the skills we need for college, why throw our education to the dogs?

It has been said that we are the future of this nation. We see just what is going on here. I'm not at all blaming the downfall of this generation wholly on the perceived lack of care for our education. Of course, however, that aspect does deserve some blame. All of us in this nation are able to attain a public education. Then we have those, above us, who attend private school systems. Then we have those, high school aged, who are able to attend colleges and advance their learning on a grander scale and receive college credits.

Needless to say, those enrolled in private and advancement schools are fortunate. But why can't we use our resources to acsertain similar status? We have those who work hard to get to the top of their class. Just how high up is the top in comparison?

Our success is defined by our own actions, I am aware. But we are not always in control of our own lives.