All my life I have wondered what does a grade mean? Does it define how smart I am? Does it define how much I can learn? I could continue with endless questions that really have no concrete answers, and upon answering them more doubts would come to my mind.
Ever since I entered middle school I remember those grumpy old teachers repeating over and over again with a scratchy voice: “your grades define your future”. That clichéd phrase spun around my mind all through my school life and never had I had the courage to affront it until this year.
The first thought that comes through my mind is “how wrong those teachers were”.
All my life in school I have done things for the sake of the grade and didn’t really learn anything. I was assigned a task and like a robot I worked without questioning anything or actually learning. I completed the task and the information learned completely vanished.
I learned nothing for a long time.
I remember each time I got a report card I didn’t care about criteria or specific assessments just my overall grade for the class because after all that defined my intelligence.
However, I can assure you that grades are nothing but numbers given out and they define nothing of whom we are or how smart we are.
Why does my Chem or Physics grade define how smart I am if I want to be a business man?
Exactly.
That’s my point; it doesn’t define who I am either as a student or as a person.
Grades are just school’s way of separating us and they should not define our future or goals.
I can have average grades but the passion I put into my work and the friendships I develop are what in a not so distant future will help me after college.
A 2.0 student can know more than a 4.0 student. Grades don’t determine intelligence, they test obedience.
Grades only determine how well we follow orders but what if we feel what we are being told to do is not correct? Should we just nod and follow?
Absolutely not.
We entrepreneurs thrive from challenges and being different, we thrive from taking chances. Sometime those gambles will affect how we perform but the only way to achieve our goals is being risk takers.
If we focus on grades and not on what we want then we are loosing that spark that lives within us.
This year I have decided to forget that I will be given a number when the year-ends, I have decided not to focus on the grade I get, but actually focus on learning and developing both as a student and as a learner.
My new mentality has improved my performance for school tremendously and the way I work today is something I never thought possible.
Now think about it.
When you work in a company are you given a grade or feedback on your work?
Exactly, you get feedback and that is how you are evaluated and that is precisely what we should focus from a young age at school.
Focusing on our grades will hamper our development; it will stall our growth. Instead focus on advice and criticism and only there will you see who you really are.