Everyone is different and smart and also less knowledgeable in their own ways. I feel very strongly on the subject material that is being taught in school these days. We, as students, should be taught things that apply to everyone, or that are at least less specific to certain topics. For example, to qualify to get in to a state college, one has to take algebra two. To someone like me who is not good at math, but still would like to get into a state level school, this is quite frustrating. The kind of math that is required to know to pass algebra two or even geometry is very high level and only applies to those who need that kind of math for a future career that they would like to pursue. In my case, I want to be a kindergarten or first grade teacher in the future. I am quite sure that I won't be teaching five year old children the quadratic formula or any type of trigonometric function. And yet, I spent a whole school year struggling through algebra two so that I could apply for a state college (not to mention the amounts of money spent on a math tutor I had to go to once a week). We should be able to choose at an earlier age what our academic path will look like. By about ninth grade, most students know whether they are good at math or not. If you are good at it, great, continue learning all there is about it and keep that with you in your future career. If not, why are we forced to waste our time learning about things that will never apply to us and might only hold us back from further education? I acknowledge a quote from Albert Einstein, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid”. Again, I believe that everyone is bright in their own ways, we just need to give them the opportunity to show it.