We've always lived and grown up into a world that praises academic success over almost everything. When we're tired and need rest, they tell us,"It's okay, just do your best!" with judgement in their voices if we didn't study for an important exam. Who are they to judge someone's intelligence when it's all pretty much fooey? Who are we to judge someone and make them feel awful for failing a grade, even when they tried as hard as they could? Here's 5 reasons why school doesn't, and will never, show how intelligent you are.
1) Most schoolwork is based off of memorization.
People with better memories always tend to get better grades than people with poor memories. It's not fair to teach everyone in the same way; telling them that if they don't memorize all the words on that page, that they'll fail the test. That the tests not only symbolize intelligence, but how likely you are to succeed outside of the classroom; and it's just so far from the truth. Since when has memory defined how smart you are?
2) Sometimes it's more worth it to sleep.
Before everything, your mental health and stability is the most important. Of course school will drive you nuts, it drives everyone nuts sometimes! But when it gets to the point where you get 1 or 2 hours of sleep because you stayed up studying or doing your work, it becomes a problem. The lack of sleep will not help you do better in school. Having a mental breakdown because you're so stressed out will not help you in life. Getting a bad grade because you value your mental health over a grade doesn't make you stupid.
3) Grades do not affect IQ.
You've heard all the stories multiple times now. How some absolute geniuses made bad marks in school. It's true! Your ability to do school work doesn't affect your IQ level at all. It doesn't make sense to label someone if they can't focus well, or do wonderfully in one subject, but not the others. Some people with very low IQ's can get straight A's. You can't judge someone's mental capacity.
4) Not everyone learns the same way.
You've heard this one before too, and it's absolutely true! You could be an out of the box thinker and don't understand the ways your teacher teaches everyone else. You could answer a question with something that doesn't necessarily fit into the norms that the books told them was right, so they tell you it's wrong. There is only black and white in academics, and not everyone sees that way.
5) Life is about learning, not marks on a page.
You will be a completely different person out of high school. You can be the smartest, most intelligent person now, while in the past you made bad grades and never focused. Your intelligence could have deteriorated after school, and while you once made perfect grades, you aren't so sharp now; and that's okay. It's okay not to be the perfect student. As long as you try, as long as you want to learn new things, then who's to say you're not the next Einstein?
