When one thinks of the “American Dream,” it is an idea centered around working to be able to live. It makes sense for the most part. You work to achieve your goals. If not, you become stuck in a competitive economy. However, do people really sit down and give our economic structure any thought?
Ideally, the average citizen is born with expectations to contribute to society when the individual is fully matured. In preparation for that time, we start school at the age of 5, sometimes younger, and continue with our education until high school if one does not become a dropout. If about thirteen years of your life wasn’t enough to prepare you to become an exemplary citizen, you are encouraged to go to college where you spend two more years of your life taking “required” classes not apart of your major and two more additional years towards courses that are towards your major. All of this time is to grant you the opportunity to receive a document stating you are a little more qualified to perhaps get accepted to a more stable job. If you would like a career to put you in a different financial class system and different tax bracket, which taxes you more if you’re still middle class, more of your time needs to be dedicated towards education.
By the time you’re done actually getting the degrees you need to maybe get the career you want, life has passed you by, and you’re a full-grown adult, wondering where the beginning stages of your life went. You might think it’s not worth even thinking about such things anyway because you might have kids or other responsibilities to tend to, requiring you to work full time at a job you’re not even sure you want but know you need. I am not criticizing our system because it isn’t the ideal “Utopia,” but there are improvements we can make as a society to allow our ways of life to be more fulfilling throughout our time on this rock we share called Earth.
We know basic knowledge is a necessity. So why not restructure our education towards knowledge we actually need to know. For example, history is essential because we must understand where we came from to discover our past mistakes, who we are, and what we want to be. So why is only part of history told while neglecting to say the entirety of the story. After all, telling half the truth is still a lie. Also, math is an essential part of how our economy runs, but there should also be a reasonable line drawn on how much you actually need to know. For instance, I was taught Calculus in high school, knowing full well I would not utilize such a subject matter for any of the future career opportunities I had in mind. Even to understand what future career you want or who you want to be, there needs to be a grace period of finding yourself and self-reflection our world just doesn’t have. There’s always this “on the go” mentality. If you’re not going with the busy flow, then you are labeled a “loser” who won’t go far in life because it is the way our lives are engineered to be.
To get to the actual “American Dream,” we don’t need a grandiose stride towards something bigger. We simply need small steps in the right direction to achieve our larger picture of a more rewarding life. When Thomas Jefferson drafted the United States Declaration of Independence, I’m sure our repetitive slave-like working day to day habits was something he was trying to prevent when he wrote the phrase “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Let’s start with something such as gearing colleges towards classes students actually must take towards their major. Cut out any classes not beneficial to their career goal as well as the arbitrary credit hour requirements undergraduates and graduates alike “need” to get a diploma. Less time taken for the unnecessary and more time towards the necessary will save citizens, students, and government entities time, money, and political strife. If such a method works, apply it to other aspects our world is in dire need of. I guarantee if we all take a moment to think about the improvements we need instead of continuing our “on the go” mentality, we will start seeing the “American Dream” turn into a reality.
Reginald andah 