Response: Should we eliminate tracking in schools?

Initially, before reading more about tracking, I believed that tracking should not be eliminated. However, after I became more aware of how tracking worked in other schools, I believed that tracking should be eliminated. Although the system of tracking attempts to create a fair system where students are placed based on their abilities, because of how society is, this system is not always fair. Not only seen in one school but multiple schools, tracking can create a sense of discrimination due to different beliefs that may not necessarily be correct. Even if someone of a minority race can be just as smart as someone of the majority, they are usually placed in a lower track for different reasons correlating to their race. Tracking can also cause lower confidence in students placed in the lower track as well as create egotistical personalities in those placed in a higher track. A student in the lower track may feel as if they could never be placed in a higher track and might stop trying overall. Once they've given up hope on themselves, it is hard for them to regain their confidence. Tracking happens at such a young age and I think that kids are too young to be labeled as someone in the higher or lower track in elementary school. In middle school for example, since I was in a higher track, I was required to take high school courses. College was not something I thought about at that time and I wasn't as serious about my grades. Little did I know that it would follow me to highschool, where I am serious about college. Many kids including myself, do not think about how their careers or college life will be at the age of 10. As a result of this, being placed in a higher track is not always a good thing.