The first problem in my personal rating is absence of freedom of choice. What does it mean? For example, if an adult person doesn’t want to work as a teacher, he can try hand in something else. If he doesn’t like working in this particular company, nobody will make him do that. Yes, sometimes adult people have to do boring and unpleasant work, but, firstly, it’s their own choice, and, secondly, they get money for this. As for pupils at school, they cannot choose what subjects to study. They cannot choose teachers as well. They just have to do what everyone does. And that is not fair. For instance, I know for sure that I will never need Geometry in my life. I am going to be an interpreter or a tour guide, and dedicate my life to travelling and communicating with people. I don’t consider myself to be stupid, but I really can’t cope with all these figures, theorems and integrals – I just have no gift for Mathematics. And I don’t understand why on earth I should waste time and efforts on this useless stuff! It is commonly believed that schoolchildren are too small to choose, because they don’t know what subjects they will need in future. Yes, I agree that they are too small in primary school, but we, tenth-graders are old enough to make a choice. However, I will have to pass a Unified State Exam on Math, which is a compulsory subject, and it’s more than likely that I will spoil my school-leaving certificate with a bad mark.
