When I went to class the other day, my professor handed back our reading quizzes that we had taken the class period before. This is a pretty common occurrence, taking reading quizzes is nothing new or special in this class. The thing is, I am not good at taking reading quizzes, like I suck at them even though I always do the reading. The other day, when she handed the newest quizzes back, I got a particularly low grade, much lower than I normally do. My professor even wrote on the quiz that it would be one of the grades she would drop (she is dropping the two lowest quiz grades at the end of the semester). Even though I know it won't end up counting towards my final grade, my brain still jumped to the worst possible scenario- failing the class. I immediately started convincing myself that I was going to fail the course and end up flunking out of college. Yes, I know that is incredibly dramatic. But I have always been taught that grades are the most important thing. Being successful in life is all based on getting good grades.

But I don't think that is right.

This opinion is probably unpopular, but I love learning. I love finding out as much as I can about the topics that are interesting to me. I think that is what school should be about. Learning. That is what we are supposed to be doing during the countless hours we sit in a classroom listening to lectures, right?

Instead, it has turned into a race to see how much material you can memorize in a short amount of time to get a good grade on a test and then we forget everything we just "learned". We worry so much about grades, that we have created shortcuts for ourselves, so we ace the tests. We haven't been taught to take the time to truly learn the material, so we can remember it longer than a few days.

I thought at college it would be different. I thought I would have the time to really be able to learn and study. I guess I was just being naive, because I have found myself doing the same thing I did in high school- learning material long enough to take a test. I can't convince myself that grades aren't as important as I was told growing up. It was so ingrained in me, that I cannot get it out of my head.

Living in America gives us the opportunity for a better education than what most people receive in other countries. And it really is a great opportunity, if we were actually learning the material. That is why we get an education. To learn. Not to become really good at memorizing meaningless facts and spouting them back out on a test. I don't know when the educational system starting getting it wrong, but it's time to turn things around. Going to school and learning does not have to be a bad, torturous thing that we are forced to do. I think that if we could stop worrying and focusing on how high our GPAs are, going to school and learning would actually be a lot more enjoyable and a lot less stressful. But I know that is easier said than done.