Grades...the two-edged sword. Grades make life easier for everyone except students. My 2 kids (31 and 29) were very different students. My oldest, great test taker, high ACT, never studied in HS, made very good grades, and flamed out in college. My youngest, poor test taker, low ACT, always studied in HS, made good grades, and did very well in college and grad school. Looking purely at HS GPA and ACT scores, my oldest would have been the one chosen to succeed. However, he was the victim of his success in HS because he did not develop the study habits to be successful in college. Studying is where my daughter excelled and it helped her be successful in college. I don’t know of a way to boil all this down to a number that a college administrator and/or employer can just do a simple comparative analysis and pick the best candidate.
I certainly felt this at school too. Even when I was actually curious about a topic I would not focus on deeply understanding it, but rather on getting a high grade. Only now, after finishing school and learning from curiosity, I finally understand what's it like to go deep, get curious and not strive for a useless grade.
I've always felt that because of this problem of chasing grades, I kind of missed the actual point of school. At the same time, I'm wondering whether I would've been able to be as curious as I am now as a young teenager, feels like you first have to grow in order to properly go deep into some topics.
I'm trying to work through this. I think grades used to work, until the competitve part was removed. Grades can create a competitive environment. The same thing that makes somone want to improve his run time, step count, etc is what drives his need for a better grade. He wants to beat his own goals. But what drives others? Being better than his peers? For years teachers used competition as a way to drive students. Competitive students were not always the smartest, but the need to beat others drove them to be smarter, faster, etc. Right? But then they removed so much of the competition out of learning and it changed the dynamic. What do competitve people strive for now? Getting acceptance letters. But now pretty much everyone has the privilege of overpaying for a watered down education, so now what? This isn't completely thought through, but trying to make everyone "equal and happy" and "highly" educated (as defined by the education system) really seems to just move the goal posts. The smartest ones still succeed, the competitive ones still succeed, the lazy ones still complain life isn't fair and the rest just want to make a good life for themselves and not be bothered. I agree that grades are nearly moot at this point, but then you have to bring back some sort of "drive" and know that not all people will respond and that's ok. "Higher" education may not be the best path for all humans and that's ok.
Reading Scarcity Brain….. love it….listened to you on the Glorious professional podcast…here’s your affirmation…I look forward to the books and the newsletter…can’t say there was some amazing transformation but as a former high school strength coach I feel more informed and sharing info with studies to back it up is awesome….keep it up!
Top students have mastered the art of rule-following and compliance rather then critical thinking and innovation.
US education is follows an industrial revolution. factory based model with a large centralized location to facilitate administration, bells for starting, changing class and ending; segregation by age; and standardized curriculum...all to produce a conforming product.
Grades...the two-edged sword. Grades make life easier for everyone except students. My 2 kids (31 and 29) were very different students. My oldest, great test taker, high ACT, never studied in HS, made very good grades, and flamed out in college. My youngest, poor test taker, low ACT, always studied in HS, made good grades, and did very well in college and grad school. Looking purely at HS GPA and ACT scores, my oldest would have been the one chosen to succeed. However, he was the victim of his success in HS because he did not develop the study habits to be successful in college. Studying is where my daughter excelled and it helped her be successful in college. I don’t know of a way to boil all this down to a number that a college administrator and/or employer can just do a simple comparative analysis and pick the best candidate.
I certainly felt this at school too. Even when I was actually curious about a topic I would not focus on deeply understanding it, but rather on getting a high grade. Only now, after finishing school and learning from curiosity, I finally understand what's it like to go deep, get curious and not strive for a useless grade.
I've always felt that because of this problem of chasing grades, I kind of missed the actual point of school. At the same time, I'm wondering whether I would've been able to be as curious as I am now as a young teenager, feels like you first have to grow in order to properly go deep into some topics.
I'm trying to work through this. I think grades used to work, until the competitve part was removed. Grades can create a competitive environment. The same thing that makes somone want to improve his run time, step count, etc is what drives his need for a better grade. He wants to beat his own goals. But what drives others? Being better than his peers? For years teachers used competition as a way to drive students. Competitive students were not always the smartest, but the need to beat others drove them to be smarter, faster, etc. Right? But then they removed so much of the competition out of learning and it changed the dynamic. What do competitve people strive for now? Getting acceptance letters. But now pretty much everyone has the privilege of overpaying for a watered down education, so now what? This isn't completely thought through, but trying to make everyone "equal and happy" and "highly" educated (as defined by the education system) really seems to just move the goal posts. The smartest ones still succeed, the competitive ones still succeed, the lazy ones still complain life isn't fair and the rest just want to make a good life for themselves and not be bothered. I agree that grades are nearly moot at this point, but then you have to bring back some sort of "drive" and know that not all people will respond and that's ok. "Higher" education may not be the best path for all humans and that's ok.
Reading Scarcity Brain….. love it….listened to you on the Glorious professional podcast…here’s your affirmation…I look forward to the books and the newsletter…can’t say there was some amazing transformation but as a former high school strength coach I feel more informed and sharing info with studies to back it up is awesome….keep it up!
This is absolutely brilliant and thought-provoking. Thanks for posting.
Top students have mastered the art of rule-following and compliance rather then critical thinking and innovation.
US education is follows an industrial revolution. factory based model with a large centralized location to facilitate administration, bells for starting, changing class and ending; segregation by age; and standardized curriculum...all to produce a conforming product.