IndexWhat Caused the BoredomDo We Really Have a Military State Education SystemChildren Are Really Not Left BehindDataMoney = InequalityOnline SchoolWhen it comes to education in America today, what matters is More important to schools and educational institutions are test scores and grades. This is a big problem because it causes students to get bored with learning, so they lose interest in it all. “We could encourage the best qualities of youth – curiosity, adventure, resilience, capacity for surprising insights – simply by being more flexible about time, texts and tests, introducing children to truly competent adults, and giving each student the autonomy they need to do it. he needs it to take risks every now and then” (Gatto 115). The only way to fix this new problem of boredom is to sweep away everything we have in the education system and start over. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay What Caused Boredom “Our politicians today think that what matters most is getting high scores on math and reading tests” (Ravitch 106). This has led students themselves to believe that grades and test scores are the only thing that matters. In all reality tests they measure memorization skills and not how intelligent the person taking it is and the students have forgotten it. No test will ever measure their potential to be something great. John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher, said that boredom was everywhere in his world as a teacher (114). When questioned, the students replied that they were bored because "the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it" (Gatto 114). Teachers get bored because students “only care about grades” (Gatto 114). This boredom comes from the fact that most schools have become a way to equalize large numbers of citizens. Do we really have a military state education system? Schools began to become mandatory between the years 1905 and 1915 for three reasons: to make good citizens, to make good people, and to make each person their best (Gatto 117). This doesn't seem that serious, but many people like HL Mencken and Christopher Lasch have studied the origin of our education system and what it really means. The reality is that our education system derives from the military state of Prussia (Cat 117). The Prussians used schools to create an easy-to-manage population by “creating mediocre intellects, hindering the interior life, denying students valuable leadership skills, and ensuring docile and incomplete citizens” (Gatto 118). Alexander Inglis, an author of the early 1900s, wrote about the true six fundamental functions of the American school: the adaptive function, the integrative function, the diagnostic and directive function, the differentiating function, the selective function and the preparatory function (Gatto 119) . These functions "establish fixed habits of reaction to authority", "determine the appropriate social role of each student", "divide children according to role" and teach them accordingly, "mark the unsuitable clearly enough that their peers will accept them as inferior" and train a very small portion of kids to become leaders (Gatto 119). The Prussian education system created a harmless population of voters, a subservient workforce, and, what America is best known for, mindless consumers. Aren't children really being left behind? Most schools in the United States have significantly reduced the number of people they do not test since the law was enacted.