A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college.
GRE Issue Task
Education is an enlightening medium that molds future leaders and innovators of a nation. A national curriculum that lacks any variety and is largely homogenous is likely to thwart innovation, negate diversity, and circumscribe the possibilities of any cross-disciplinary work. Moreover, it will give rise to a generation without any diversity in creative thinking and negate the possibility of breeding innovators. Thus, a national curriculum should not be mandatory for all students until they enter college.
Educational institutions play a pivotal role in the early years of a child to foster creativity and problem-solving acumen. These traits are reflected later in their life in the gamut of office space to research facilities. However, a nation which imposes a national curriculum to be followed by every single student at this early age, will thwart the development of creativity for a child. For example, consider two children: one of them learns computer programming at an early age another learns to play a musical instrument at that very same age. It cannot be denied that both of these children are an instrumental part for the development of a nation. However, mandating a certain set of courses will likely negate any pursuit of courses which are different in nature. Thus, depriving a society of creativity and innovativeness.
Next, the lack of diversity in a nation that mandates a national curriculum is acute. The children undergoing the same curriculum will develop a fixed set of skills which will be largely identical to one another. This will deprive the nation of any maverick leader or innovator. Steve Jobs is an example of such a leader. Not only did he altered the course of history with the advent of microcomputers, but also inspired future innovators. On the other side of the spectrum, we have Micheal Jackson; who is also coterminous in terms of impact, but in a different industry. It is conceivable that these two people had a different set of skills which they employed to achieve greateness. And these skills were developed during their very early years. This kind of diversity in talents and creativity will be largely absent in a nation which tries to mold its young students in a homogenous fashion. It might give rise to good employees, but not creative talents, music virtuoso or the next Steve Jobs.
Furthermore, a nation that mandates a certain curriculum for all its students will inevitably deprive entire generations the exposure to any different curriculum. Thus, any loopholes in the imposed curriculum would not be revealed due to the lack of diversity in the system. Since everyone will be undergoing the same curriculum, it will be largely impossible to compare between different schooling systems and understand which one is working and why. Invariably, this will lead to a nation with an underdeveloped schooling system which would not be challenged by any alternative curriculum.
The national curriculum, implemented in a thoughtful way, can lead to substantive development in educating a nation’s youth. Nevertheless, it cannot be a mandated one, which is subsequently imposed on the students in their forming years. The students, as well as the schools, should be given the latitude to curve out different curriculums based on necessity and preference.
