I've been thinking a lot about what Mr. Lazarow had to say the Wednesday before Thanksgiving break. I remember thinking to myself the entire time that it was the most depressing speech I had ever heard. I even shared my thoughts with Grace, and she responded by saying that it was truly inspiring. I guess we were both right.
I feel that grades are completely useless. In that sense, the speech was inspiring, for it completely backed the truth that grades are an empty honor. However, I felt that I fit completely into what Mr. Lazarow was describing- a student driven by grades and not learning. For me, it was a kind of reality check. Entering high school freshman year, I knew that I'd have to work hard to get the A's that I had earned in middle school. But the learning aspect never even occurred to me. As Sophomore year passed and I entered Junior year, this became even more of a reality, because everyone around me was saying how Junior year "makes or breaks" your ability to get into a top-notch college. But, as Mr. Lazarow said (and as I have heard and previously ignored countless times), all undergraduate education is more or less equal, from Harvard to BCC.
In addition, the grade aspect of high school is emphasized by the school, driving competitiveness among students and even a false atmosphere in learning. While most of my friends could be considered "intelligent" and fall in the 10% of our Junior class (as well as my competitors for college), I feel that the grading system causes me (and them as well) to even encourage forgoing friendship for the "elusive 'A.'" On another note, how can receiving a grade be indicative of what has been learned? If I simply have a photographic memory, then would that not allow me to memorize the myriad of major dates of European history and processes of biology? Not to seem like a sycophant, but I feel that our English class is one of the few classes that the grade does point to how much we have taken away from the experience. After all, it is technically a college-level course, and it is not expected that we get amazing grades on everything. Besides this class, however, only a few choice classes stand out in their ability to actually teach me anything at all (for me, biology).
The most unfortunate thing about it all is that it cannot be stopped anytime soon. We have all experienced or seen those hellish demons called "helicopter parents," who hover around their children and, for lack of a better word, force them to do well in school. For what? So they can get into an Ivy-League institution, make money, and be happy. All three of which do not follow by any twisted logic. My only hope is that we try to learn in all that we do: make LEARNING the priority and make the GRADE the product that follows from our learning.
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4 comments:
Ian I totally agree with everything you just said.
And I love that you used the word sycophant.
This is officially the shortest comment response on the blog.
First, I would like to let the world know that I am thoroughly impressed with Ian's sophisticated vocabulary.
But, yeah, I'd have to agree that it's not the grade that's important. It's not really evenincredibly important WHAT you learn either. The purpose is to learn HOW to learn.
Mr. Lazarow brought up a good idea when he said that he went to Penn State to march. He could get an english major anywhere but couldn't be part if a DI marching band anywhere. He wasn't worried about "looking good" for college.
And, as I always say to people, If I wanted to look good for college I'd get a haircut.
Hey, it's Erin.
In a way, it's kind of like what we learned in Hayakawa - people confuse the symbol with the thing and oftentimes possessing the symbol is more important. But I guess it's hard to break out of the idea when it's what you've been told is important all your life
Hey,it's Amy.
Ok, I to would like to live in an ideal world where grades have not importance and learning is all that matters in school. Unfortunately, this is not the real world and learning biology, chemistry,art, or history is not the only education we receive during our 4 yrs of high school.
We are taught to succeed, or teachers attempt to teach us how to succeed in the real world. Unless we're on Who Want's to be a Millionaire or we decide to major in math, why would we ever have to know the quadratic formula or sine and cosine? Like Ben said, it's not what you learn, it's how you learn it. We are put in competitive classes with competitive students and compete to earn grades that will get us accepted to competitive colleges. Life is survival of the fittest and you either sink or swim, a lesson most students are taught early on in our high school career.
I wish I could say that it doesn't matter what college you go to, your experience and what you take from that class will be identical whether you attend BCC or Yale. In my opinion, it would be a lie. I could be making an incorrect assumption based on uneducated theories, but I'm pretty sure that more qualified professors are hired by more elite schools. I'm assuming this is usually true. If so, a student's experience would be completely different from another school because each teacher views and relays the information and material in a varied way. A teacher could have spent twenty years in Spain, studying the various cultures down to the minute details whereas another teacher could have spent five years and have a more generic understanding as compared to the other teacher. A professor tries to teach his students everything he knows about a subject, so isn't the more experienced one more useful?
Also, if applying for a job two candidates had equal qualifications, it's more likely that the one from a more elite school will win the position. Colleges are ranked based on the opportunities they provide and students' educations become more involved with more resources. Which is better: 1)An advertisment class in the middle of nowhere in Montana or 2) and advertisment class in New York City? I'm going with number two, since the environment and the opportunities of the college/university are more beneficial in a busy city where advertisment is constantly evident.
Grades do matter, they shouldn't, but they do. They teach us about survival and how to progress in our society and what kind of work ethic or skills this will involve. I don't like how we work hard in school so that we can work hard in college so that we can work hard in our jobs so that we can have a good retirement, but that seems to be the current cycle. All we can do is enjoy life as we go, but we still need to progress with society or else we are left behind.
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