This is a personal reflection on the film “Most Likely to Exceed” (Greg Whiteley). This film dives into the culture of a nonconventional high school in the United States. Initially, I loved what the school was trying to achieve. It broke the norms of high school education in hopes of providing students with a more authentic experience of learning that is more related to the real world setting.
The film brings up the fact that the test system in the conventional school system is unrealistic since people in the real world do not sit in desks and solve problems to showcase their skills in a job. Usually there is an end product that shows the persons capabilities. For example, a carpenter creates a house, a painter creates a piece of art, a composer creates a song etc. After realizing this, instead of having students do the usual pen and paper tests, the school puts on a showcase fair at the end of the year where the general public comes and views the products/creations of the students. I believe this great in comparison to looking at a few numbered grades which are supposed to represent a students skill/knowledge.
The main problem with this school, is the fact that some of these high school students need to get into universities to work their desired occupation (ei. doctor, lawyer etc.). Unfortunately, although working towards these final products involve students learning a variety of different skills and acquiring knowledge, they do not cover the necessary volume of knowledge to pass examinations to make it into some universities. As a result, some students were frustrated and did not appreciate the education the unconventional school gave them.
To conclude my reflection, I believe what this unconventional education system is doing is overall a great thing. The school employs an authentic teaching system that creates an authentic learning experience for the students. Unfortunately, the education system at post secondary level requires a different set of expectations. Since this is the case, I believe this new unconventional system of education needs to consider what the student wants from education and not only what adults want for the student (ie: parent/guardian, teacher).
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