The world of education is constantly evolving, whether that be for better or for worse.
My eardrums felt like they would burst as I heard a pop from the shotgun. I looked over at three of my classmates, our eyes wide, as we huddled together in our high school’s athletic training office. As I cautiously peeked my head out the door, I could see the faint shadow of another student, who was lying motionless on the hard concrete floor.
My heart fluttered in my chest. My pulse beat rapidly. My palms were sweating. I was nervous, scared, shaky. And it wasn’t even real.
During the summer before my senior year of high school, my school was asked to help film a video depicting an active shooter situation that would be distributed to police officers across Indiana to aid with school safety training. Around 15 of my classmates and I spent an August morning filming the video, acting as if we were attending a basketball game in the high school fieldhouse when a shooter appeared, gunning down our principal and other students.
While filming the final version of the video, our teachers were asked to observe, sitting on metal bleachers at the end of the long hallway. My mom, who is a teacher at my high school, watched as my friends and I were chased down by a man in a black hoodie, carrying a large, convincingly real gun. It was shortly after watching that my mom decided to bring a baseball bat to keep in the closet in her classroom, just in case.
In 2018 alone, 23 school shootings have occurred. This new reality hit even closer to home when a shooting happened at Noblesville West Middle School on May 25. Being prepared for a school shooter situation is only one of the many new realities that both teachers and students must now face in the world of education.
For example, many teachers, specifically in Indiana, must deal with the ever-changing curriculum and standardized testing the state implements. Other schools have, quite logically, started to put a focus on STEM; however, finding teachers to take a job in a school, compared to pursuing a high-paying career in the field, has become an entirely new challenge.
Students, too, have adjusted to these new realities of education—but not all of these changes are bad. Today’s students have the opportunity to attend different schools to meet their individual needs, since so many are available. Colleges, too, have transformed vastly over the years, now offering new features and opportunities in which students can partake.
For better or for worse, education is constantly evolving. What doesn’t change, though, is the integral role it plays in all of our lives.
