LAKE COUNTY — Lake County Division No. 35 of the California Retired Teachers” Association has announced the winners of its recent high school essay contest. The assignment this year was to describe what high school might be like in 25 years.The winners are:
* First place — Asia Jones, Clear Lake High School;
* Second place — Savannah Koch, Lower Lake High School;
* Third place — Jordin Simons, Upper Lake High School; and
Honorable Mention ? Madeline Kucer, Middletown High School.
The first-place essay
I have thought quite a bit about your question. In 25 years, high school could be a very different place, at least in the manner of teaching methods. However, in spirit, high school will never change.
Technology has become a part of our daily lives. In our classrooms at Clear Lake High School, we already have Smartboards, touch-screen computers, in place of white boards. In the next 25 years, those may even become obsolete to holograms or virtual reality technology.
While holograms and virtual reality technology probably sound far off, both are actually in use today, just not yet for school purposes. Holograms are experiments at the moment, used for scientific study to show a three-dimensional version of an object not in the room. These could be used in biology; imagine being able to see the inside workings of an animal or even a human being without need of dissection.
Virtual reality technology is already used in video games and, in the very near future, could be used for history class. Think of how amazing it would be to listen to Martin Luther King Jr.”s “I Have a Dream” speech or to watch the Battle of Gettysburg as if you were there.
Even in science, teachers could use this method to transform a classroom into a volcano, the rainforest or another planet.
Remember how heavy your book-bag was? Well, backpacks and lockers could soon disappear. Electronic books are replacing novels and college text books and could eventually move down to the high-school level. Even classrooms could vanish with the advancement of programs like Skype and online classes.
But there are some aspects of high school that haven”t changed since it began and probably won”t: the cliques, the trends, the bullying and the mistakes everyone makes. The “cool kids,” the “loners,” the geeks and the nerds are all parts of the high school hierarchy. This results in bullying among the groups or teens making mistakes by trying to be “cool.”
Some people follow the trends that the “cool kids” set, like fashion or partying, which could result in poor decisions.
Although the social aspect of high school may not change much, with all the budget cuts today, schools will be looking for ways to save money. Having one machine for all a student”s books or even having virtual classrooms would reduce costs and be the way of the future.
— Asia Jones
The second-place essay
Each generation leaves behind a different legacy, especially when it comes to the education of their children. The high school I envision my generation leaving for tomorrow”s youth is a drastically different one than that what we have today, especially in terms of technology and the academic and social aspects of education.
In the past two decades, technology has advanced in leaps and bounds and this pattern will only continue until things like computer chips in our brains that allow us to instantly obtain information will have leapt off of the pages of science fiction novels and into our everyday lives. In 25 years, entire subjects will be in the form of digital files, stored on streamlined versions of today”s “cloud” networks and ready to be downloaded to those brain chips.
Campuses themselves will be a thing of the past, since universal accessibility of information will eliminate the need to attend classes. As a result of these kinds of developments, there will be sharper lines in the intellectual hierarchy. Those who are more driven will be more likely to take advantage of the opportunity to obtain more knowledge. Those with less motivation ? the ones who would have, at best, napped their way through class ? will be even more likely to laze the days away, and they will not have as many adults there to attempt to guide them toward success.
In the academic arena, science and math will once again be at the forefront like they were during the space race, since these are the fields that fuel innovation in electronics. Almost all other subjects will also be more accessible, which will afford students the freedom to explore different topics, like in college, and leave them more well-rounded academically.
Since the time vacated by classes will afford students more time to participate in athletics, arts, and clubs, extracurriculars like these will help make up for the lost face-time of the academic aspect, so the youth of tomorrow will still be able to interact with each other and develop their social skills.
The high school of the future will be an amalgam of infinite amounts of instant information and abundant free time. Twenty-five years from now, the technological legacy of my generation will have transformed science fiction into fact for high school students everywhere.
— Savannah Koch
The third-place essay
In 25 years I believe that the typical school experience will have dramatically changed for the worst. Over the years, freedom of choice will slowly diminish, leaving students and teachers alike, powerless against the government. Young minds will no longer be able to choose the career path or lifestyle they want to pursue; but simply told how to live their lives.
The most enjoyable aspects of school such as the arts and organized sports will become insignificant aspects of the rapidly changing curriculum. Activities that are associated with schools now will be mere memories 25 years from now.
Self-expression through singing, dancing, and creating any art form will become private activities for only the enjoyment of the creator. There won”t be any art classes filled with eager students splattering canvases with brilliant colors or aspiring photographers capturing shots of the world around them. Singing and dancing will be seen as shameful disturbances by adults, rather than blissful entertainment.
Organized sports will only be played for the sense of solidarity they instill, rather than the love of the game. Participation will be mandatory for people with an athletic build and optimum health, so they can be molded into super human combating machines useful to the military. How subjects in school are taught will also have changed significantly in 25 years.
Along with the disappearance of amusing activities, certain aspects and events of subjects like History will purposely be left untaught. The Revolutions, coups d”?tat and anything having to do with rebellion against authority will become less and less relevant in the curriculum so as not to spark an uprising within the school or on a grander level. Starting in the schools, individuality, will slowly but surely, be taken away and everyone will become mindless drones controlled by the government that serve only to benefit the whole of the society.
A lot can happen over 25 years and I predict that school will radically transform from the spirited social structure that we know today into a rigid and mundane place based on rules and uniformity. Creating art, singing, dancing, and playing sports will vanish from existence and people will lose their individualism. Everything about school, and society for that matter, is going to be altered. After all, change is inevitable.
?- Jordin Simons
Honorable Mention
The buzzer sounded, its dull long moan marking the end of the lesson. I stretched and fiddled with the strap on the back of the headset. I never understood why they locked these dreadful things on us. It wasn”t as if we wouldn”t want to learn, we all knew the consequence; getting the chip early. I yawned and wondered if it had rained yet. The sensor on my wrist predicted rain for late afternoon, so I wore my rain boots.
“Do you feel like you learned a lot today?” Mrs. 124 droned.
Where the kids played sports, now we could only play sports in the sports simulator. I sighed and tried to imagine what it would be like, to live like grandmother. She used to have human teachers, standing in front of a room while all the children sat in desks. The first state to have modern learning was California, where I live, so we are known as the revolutionaries of learning.
“Boys and girls listen up,” Mrs. 124 said, her voice vibrating around the room. She reached a silver arm up to her control panel and pushed a button. The ceiling transformed itself into an array of numbers and names.
My own was located right above me, it was in bold, the darkest bold it could be. Bold meant I was on the waiting list for the chip. The chip that would transform my mind into that of whatever I wanted to be. It would fill me with all the knowledge the world knew. This ensured that no more stupid people would walk the Earth. Everyone was as smart as everyone else, so no struggles of power could happen, everyone was equal after the chip. I bit my lip and up turned my wrist, sure enough the countdown on my wrist read 0. Actually, all I feel is exhausted, and to tell you the truth I passed out during the history lesson, oh, and I hate how you strap these things on our heads. “Yes, Mrs. 124 I learned enough to feel like a rocket scientist,” I said sweetly smiling up at her.
“Very good,” she said and lifted the eye set off my cheeks. The light blinded me for a second, but then I regained sight of the school. Its shiny metal walls reflected everyone, and the ceiling was a collage of video cameras that watched us day in and day out. All 567 of us looked out of the only window in the building, a sheet of rain washed the glass in blue and gray. This room was once an auditorium for a high school, but for 20 years now a learning center, filled with dentist looking chairs in neat rows.
— Madeline Kucer
