So you grow up dreaming you can be whatever you want…a doctor, lawyer, or astronaut. That there is no limit to what you can achieve as long as you put everything you have into it. That mindset is etched into your brain up until about high school. At that point a little thing called grade point average (GPA) comes into play and now you don’t study to learn or pay attention in class because you are interested in a topic. You pay attention and study to get the grade that betters your GPA.
We can all agree that when we were younger we loved going to school and learning exciting, new things and now we dread the thought of going to class. When did school become the worst part of our day? Oh yeah, when getting good grades and the best GPA determined how we will succeed in this world. You want to be a doctor? A lawyer? The president? Well, you better have the best GPA or all those dreams will slowly fade.
That needs to end.
Why should we, college and high school students, spend most of our years at school striving for a high number that will eventually miraculously fall off our resume after we get our first job. As soon as you graduate, the number will become inconsequential. I cannot remember a time when I asked someone what they do for a living/what their major was and have them respond with all that AND their GPA. And I’m sure neither can any of you. I don’t know about the rest of you but I would rather have someone be my doctor or lawyer that was passionate and hardworking in their profession rather than the antisocial brainiac that proceeded to get a 4.6 GPA in high school (all honors classes of course) and a 4.0 in college.
That high GPA person may never have done anything outside of the classroom which does not make him a well-rounded individual. Sure grades can lead to a good job, but great learning experiences such as internships, mentoring and extracurricular activities can give you resources needed to succeed in any job. It stands true that some students are simply better test takers than others, so should that mean that the students with poorer test grades should not get the same opportunities? I think not. Knowledge can get you a long way but people skills and determination can get you much further. I am not saying that testing or quizzing isn’t important because it is. We all obviously want to earn the best grades. I am just saying that the outcome of those tests and quizzes should not be the only factor in determining your success in whatever you choose to do.
School has turned into a fight for a grade instead of a fight for obtaining life-long skills and developing them into a future job. It has gotten so bad that there are some classes where all I do is stare at a projector as my professor reads off the words in front of me. I can do that at home alone and get the same result. The system has gotten so messed up that we spend more time trying to furiously take down all the notes for the exams rather than actually understanding the subject that is being taught. Basically, learning is becoming form over substance which is not ideal and will not produce the best results. Grades should not be the only factor that goes into shaping the rest of our lives, so let’s stop making them one.
