Letter to the Editor
Dear Students of Lowell,
As a senior on the cusp of graduating, I’ve been reflecting on my last four years at Lowell and have given some thought to my time here. Overall, I’ll take fond memories from my experience, but there is one aspect that I won’t necessarily miss — in a word: competition.
Consider focusing less on others’ test results, but rather more on your own results and what you are personally getting out of school.
The environment here is perhaps best exemplified on days when tests are handed back, a situation that brings out the competitor in everyone. As papers are handed back, people peer over others’ shoulders or sometimes even blatantly ask, “What did you get?” The constant pressure at Lowell to do better than our neighbor can not only be degrading to the individual, but also encourages people to compete with their friends and want to do better for the sole reason of “beating out” the others. While I welcome some healthy competition among peers, I also believe in the importance of students feeling like they to do well for themselves, not because the person next to them got two points higher.
Lowell is a top ranked high school. Its academic excellence and rigorous academics don’t go unrecognized; we’re ranked the #6 high school in California and #59 in the nation. While I think that the rankings accurately reflect how stellar students perform on those dreaded standardized tests and future success, Lowell should also be commended for the liberties they give students in selecting their own courses. As I prepare to graduate in just a few weeks, I urge students to continue choosing classes they are genuinely interested in and ones in which they know they will be motivated to work hard. Consider focusing less on others’ test results, but rather more on your own results and what you are personally getting out of school. After all, it’s not about competition, but feeling fulfilled and prepared for the next steps in our lives after we leave Lowell.
-Amanda Briskin, Class of 2017
