Education is the system that keeps a democracy functioning. Democracy’s greatest focus must be education.

Throughout high school, students experience truly exceptional teachers and ridiculously awful teachers, but the good ones are worth having to deal with the bad ones — even the bad teachers teach a valuable lesson. They unveil the real world to their students. People have to learn how to work with diverse people and environments — such as job settings, employers, and co-workers.

Proficiency-based grading and the transition to the Oregon Common Core State Standards have overwhelmingly been the focus in education lately — and much controversy has resulted. The systems take aspects of real life away. A wealth of good intentions and ideas bundled together ultimately result in negative consequences. Proficiency-based grading and Common Core will only further damage education.

The flat-out truth is that there are too many regulations and requirements in education. There is too much pressure on teachers; they have to focus on getting their students to pass state tests, district tests and standards. And because of that, they are not able to focus on what is essential. It is all about passing the next test or standard — not the actual learning. Also, the regulations and requirements deter students from learning because it is only about the grades.

Because students can simply retake and redo anything, they are not forced to learn the content at the appropriate time. That is not real life. If a student deserves and receives a bad grade on an essay, that grade should still be represented in the student’s overall grade for the class, but the student can raise his or her grade and prove that they have learned by earning a better grade on the next essay.

Students develop an unwillingness to learn because of excessive tests and official requirements, and this is not because of what the teachers decide to assign. It is human nature to be stubborn and/or rebellious if there is too much outside interference. Students do not like it when higher authorities — other than teachers — interfere with their learning. Teachers know their students better than anyone. Teachers need to be left to teach; that is why they go to college.

Bettering education should be a priority for this country, and it is. But to better education in the right way, improvement cannot come from higher authorities and people with titles; it needs to come from parents and guardians. Teachers are not babysitters, and if they were, they probably would be paid more because the rate per child would be more.

So if the goal of this country is to better educate its students, then parents and guardians need to do their part and express to their children the importance of an education.

In order to enhance the actual educational experience, changes need to be made in teacher education programs. Apparently, teachers are not fit to teach — or else there would not be all the regulations and requirements.

The government, public officials and school administrations must simply address their wishes to the colleges, so that the colleges can give the right tools to aspiring teachers who can then provide the tools of success to students. This would also help filter out some of the ridiculously awful teachers mentioned above — there will always be people who are bad at their jobs.

Though public education should not be regulation-free; regulation is necessary to some degree, and yearly state tests would suffice — and it might just reduce Oregon’s high absenteeism rate. But as of now, there is too much regulation and requirements; it is deteriorating education.

— Evan Rummerfield is a freshman at Eastern Oregon University and is working to become a high school English teacher.