As a student who was homeschooled and attended school in South Korea for ten years, I was surprised by how dramatically different public school experiences could be depending on where you live and what choices you make upon moving to the United States. When I started attending a public school in Arizona after coming from South Korea’s academically rigorous education system, I realized I did not agree with how easy the U.S. makes high school and how the school system factors in nonacademic pursuits when choosing college applicants.

Primarily, I believe that public education, especially highschool education, should be hard to go through. High school is a time where students are getting ready for adulthood—they are literally called young adults—either by preparing to get a job or preparing to attend college. In the case of students headed to college, many freshmen are surprised at how different it is from highschool. Grades are mainly based on exams, papers, presentations and rigorous assignments rather than participation, or homework graded on completion. Students are required to process numerous pieces of information in a relatively short time period and it takes more effort and teamwork to finish assignments. Students are also given a lot of autonomy, and their work ethic is put to the test as they are given the freedom not to study, but are still challenged to do so in order to pass the course. By making high school difficult, students can make studying and homework a habit and build the foundational knowledge to get through introductory classes at minimum so that professors do not have to teach high school-level material after realizing that their students don’t have the background knowledge necessary to succeed in their courses. Even if students don’t choose to go to college, rigorous education can help people learn how to overcome obstacles, how practice makes perfect and how hard work can give them the skills to overcome difficult and challenging situations in life.

I also believe that college applications should give higher priority to academics. Many people claim that a letter grade and numerical GPA do not represent the student very well because it does not take account of their skills in other areas and their personal background. They say it is not fair that a student who is gifted at playing instruments or sports but is not successful academically is going to be considered lazy and dumb and get barred from higher education. For this reason, it is common for students who have high-level athletic skills to get accepted with relatively low standardized testing scores, or with the help of a legacy system that their family has pre-established. However, those that succeed as athletes or performers are a very small percentage of people who put in the amount of work that many academically successful people put in to studying their respective fields. In academics, innate talent, luck and other factors outside of a person’s control exert little power. Putting increased emphasis on academics can give many people who may not have a gifted talent the opportunity to be successful. Additionally, it can create an atmosphere where work ethic and dedication can be celebrated and give control to the individual’s life.

As much as there are debates on how difficult public schools should be, there are debates about what schools should teach and whether everybody should learn the same things. It seems irrational to have a student aiming for an Ivy League school learn the same material as those who are not planning on attending college. It also does not make sense for a studious student to be shamed for caring about grades by people who hardly care about school in the same classroom. Instead, students should have various options for schooling. They should be able to decide whether they want to attend a school that is focused more on vocational education and training rather than textbook knowledge so they do not waste time learning things that they will not use in real life nor struggle through rigorous courses. Also, grading systems that put emphasis on rank and promote competition—as is the case in many Asian countries, including South Korea—may help motivate students to work harder. But they can also create a hostile atmosphere and put too much pressure on young students to outperform their friends. On the other hand, grading systems that are too lenient make it difficult to distinguish student’s progress by letting everyone—those who worked hard and those who didn’t—achieve the same outcome. As a result, exceptionally smart students could go unrecognized.

One thing I learned from being homeschooled in a country where a single bad grade could have messed up my entire college application and attending a public school in the U.S., is that society celebrates intellectuals not just for the knowledge they possess, but for the dedication, perseverance, work ethic and self-discipline they put in to get to that level. They have made many sacrifices and missed out on fun events and outings. Public schools operate with the taxes the citizens pay and are, therefore, responsible for providing its students with the opportunity to acquire the knowledge they need to navigate college courses smoothly, ensure that students have basic common sense and have access to necessary accommodations.