The system is broken, but the students? They’ll impress you.
It's easy to be discouraged about education in the US. In two days alone, the New York Times ran a story on the nationwide learning regression, the Wall Street Journal on ChatGPT making it impossible to measure what students are learning, and the Austin American-Statesman on the bleak state of the local job market for college graduates.
But in my role coaching admissions essays — working closely with students through several drafts as they try to capture who they are — I get to see that the students are not the system.
These students are clear-eyed about the problems they face in school: social media, grade inflation, AI in their classrooms. They are also worried about what awaits them on the other side: the environment, the country’s growing political division, and whether the jobs they're being prepared for will still exist.
They are equally clear-eyed about their own struggles. They know they are addicted to their phones, that they over-commit, that they chase grades over learning, that their mental health is suffering — and they wish they knew what to do about any of it.
And yet. The kids I know aren’t the TikTok-obsessed, self-absorbed, entitled Gen Zers portrayed in the media. These kids are remarkable. Yes, some of them are valedictorians, varsity athletes, and student leaders, but more importantly, what I see are exceptional people: curious, driven, passionate about the world and the people in it. Here are five of them:
A student sitting in the back of the room on the day an environmental lobbyist passed around a sign-up sheet. When it reached her, it was blank. She felt she had to put her name down anyway, and now lobbies local legislators — and has convinced other students to join her.
A star math and science student who is heading to a top engineering school next fall, yet he wrote his college essay not about robotics or research but about what he learned while helping a neighbor clean up her yard — because that's what mattered most to him.
A student hiking through a riverbed, who stopped by an imbricated (her word) gravel deposit in wonder at the force of the water that formed it.
A student who recognized that their autism spectrum traits were also their superpower, and who, on their own, made a deep study of cognitive science, neuroscience, and human relationships, becoming the go-to person for relationship advice.
A student so determined to help change the law around social media that she had written two different versions of her law school personal statement a year before her application was due.
And this list doesn't even include the future teacher with a vision for the next generation, the activist protesting on weekends, the poet thinking deeply about what it means to be human, the club swimmer driving himself to outdoor practices at 5:30 AM and again at 6:00 PM — all winter.
And here's what frustrates me. These kids did all this despite the issues with the education system. They've taught themselves what their classes didn't have time to cover. They've carried group projects after their teammates checked out. They've shouldered schedules that would break most adults. They’re remarkable. Imagine what they could do if the system met them halfway. Until it does, I will keep counting myself lucky that I get to know them.