Unschooling: My vision for the future

One year from now I will be a senior in high school. I wish for my teachers to teach me things that I will actually use when I am in the world as an adult. I envision knowing how to pay taxes, purchase property, debt management, and the realities of the world we live in, not the version of my world’s history that benefits the victor. 

Upon graduation, I want to feel prepared for the world. After high school, I want to know that what I learned in school will come to use as I grow and evolve into the person I want to be. Teachers and educators can go step by step on how to pay our taxes and tell us why we do pay taxes every month. I know that most students around my age are not even close to ready to function as an adult! That strikes fear in me and makes me wonder many days, “Why do I even try…”. 

In the next decade, I hope educators teach more Black, Latinx, and Asian history, ya know? More specifics and details of people of African, Latino and Asian descent that contributed to American society.  Right now, it just feels as though we have only been taught one storyline, one narrative, and even from watching television, being on social media, I know there are far more perspectives to be experienced. Our teachers can talk to us about the people in Asia who have lived through the pandemic since the very beginning. These people have been in quarantine longer than we have. They have to have gone through a lot of changes, and have suffered mentally.  A lot of students find most of the history of their people by following others online. They only really teach us the white washed versions of history in class.

One recommendation I would give to educators as they make decisions for the next school year, is to be open for your students to not always have “good” days. I feel that some educators expect their students to be on their A-game 24/7, and that is not always the case.  Like around the time my grandfather died, I wasn’t really in the mood to be at school. The only teacher that really noticed that I wasn’t acting like myself was my speech/ theater teacher. He called me into his office and offered to listen to what I was going through. That really helped me out and showed that he really cared. Now on the opposite end, I had another teacher who would do little things just to provoke some students in the class. Plus she made us feel like we had no power, so if we did try to report her she could just deny everything. It felt like we didn’t have a voice, or that our voices didn’t matter. Students understand that educators are not perfect as well, so do not be afraid to tell us and take that day to clear your head. We will understand.