What Massachussetts Schools are Really Like by Yuanzhe

What Massachussetts Schools are Really Like by Yuanzhe - October 2026 Scholarship Essay

I remembered the day that I decided to do a research project on the Massachusetts public schools and the work that I put into it. I decided to research this subject because many people talk about how wonderful Massachusetts school system is but they ignore the people who suffer from the abuse that occurs in the Massachusetts school system. This is why I decided to do my research article on Massachusetts schools and let me tell you that I learned a lot. What I did was I gathered resources from various places and found the many people who didn’t benefit from the school system. I read that when Massachusetts was first founded that despite being the first public schools, it didn’t admit African American students which I found to be a serious problem. How can the most educated part of the state refuse to admit students who weren’t white?
It wasn’t just that Massachusetts didn’t admit non-white students in its early days, I did research and found that some parts of Massachusetts are underfunded and need money. For example, in Brockton, the school system is so badly funded that many students are choosing to go to homeschool route. The reason is that many of the students in the school are often acting viciously and bullying one another to the point that no one wants to learn anything at all. The environment is so unsafe that many students don’t even want to attend classes. What I find appalling is that the state is refusing to send funding to the Brockton Public Schools and that despite being in Massachusetts, it’s one of the schools that get a lot of negative attention. It surprises me that these students get an education that is similar or even worse in some cases just like the American South and the irony is that this is occurring in Massachusetts.
If the Brockton story isn’t bad enough, there was even a story of a girl named Eloise who suffered a lot from being in the Massachusetts school system. Eloise was a dyslexic girl and the thing about her was that her school refused to help her. Even though there was medical evidence proving that she had dyslexia, her school system refuses to treat her for such. It took a lot of medical evaluations and visits to various doctors to prove to her school system that her daughter was dyslexic. However, even with that evidence the school did everything to not support her, and this made Eloise cry. While her friends were able to spell and write out lots of words, paragraphs, and sentences, she could only write a few words which made her look too simple. This was quite humiliating and from reading all of this, I was upset that the Massachusetts Public Schools were doing this. Eventually, her father decided that public schools weren’t fit for her and sent her to an alternative school. For some time, the public schools paid for this and supported it but then they tried everything they could to take her back in.
Eloise’s father saw what they were doing, and he had to spend a lot of money on lawyers, and he had to push very hard to get meetings done. However, by the time that he won the battle with the public school system, Eloise lost all her college funds. I found it unacceptable that a public school system bankrupted a family’s college fund. Though it wasn’t just the story of Eloise that I found to be interesting, I did a bit of research and found a story about how Massachusetts’ girl athletes are treated poorly. What I found out was that many of the female athlete in Massachusetts don’t get their equipment ready nor do they get the necessary support that allows them to run their meets on time. Instead, there are often delays with the girls’ section of many Massachusetts athletic meets and this is a problem. Many of these girls often must do their homework at the track. Another problem is that instead of using their Saturdays to improve their social development, they are stuck at a sports meet all day. However, what is messed up is that the boys’ meet gets done within a few hours.
This story teaches me how sexist discrimination is a major problem in the Massachusetts school system. These stories and sources that I share with you about the Massachusetts school system has taught me that there are many things that Massachusetts need to work on before it hails itself as the best school system in the nation. Ever since I started this research project about how bad Massachusetts school is, I learned a lot about Massachusetts and the people who don’t benefit from the school system despite being in a highly educated state. I feel that I can use my research to fight for a more equitable education system. Another thing that I learned from all of this is how this all relates to me. I am a person who’s autistic and I can tell you that my experiences in the Massachusetts school system were awful. Doing this research project made me realize that I’m not the only who didn’t benefit from the Massachusetts school system. I am happy that I can share my stories and be among the many who didn’t benefit.