In today’s society the average parent’s main focus is to ensure that their child does remarkably well in school. With the basic grading scheme being “A” for excellent and “F” for failure, can this be used to measure someone’s intelligence? How many of the A grades you have achieved in school helped you with your job today? Did finding “x”, or finding Pythagoras Theorem helped you to figure out what to say to your big marketing meeting? While growing up, society has taught us that in order to get a job you needed to obtain a degree and in order to gain that degree you needed good grades, however, does grades really matter? Does getting that letter ‘grade’ on your final exam truly define your future and the way you think? How can you believe a society that tells us that natural beauty is everything however, applies make up and Photoshop to a model to make them “perfect”? Society is quite biased therefore how can this society define the comprehension and intellect of your brain based on how well you did in school? Although the author does agree that qualifications are needed to be hired on a job, an individual’s intelligence cannot be measured by the number of good grades, certificates and degrees one possesses. According to the Webster Dictionary, intelligence is defined as a person who has the ability to not only acquire but, to also apply the knowledge and skills they have to everyday life. Graded exam does not test our intelligence however, it tests our ability to memorize and shows our work ethics and determination. Students do not usually apply anything they learn from school in real life unless they plan to work in that field.
Secondly opportunity is a big factor that affects education. According to research, more and more parents are opting to send their children to private schools because of the advantages they have over public schools. Enriched academic opportunities, smaller classes, parental involvement, dedicated teachers, a safe environment alongside ample resources and extra-curricular activities are some of the salient advantages. Smaller classes mean that each child is given special attention and guarded to achieve at their own pace. Ample resources mean that the process of learning is aided effectively. Consequently, learning become easier and grades are upped. I once picked up a quote somewhere which goes “no education system is better than the quality of its teachers.” This goes back to opportunity, dependant on where one is educated. You cannot compare someone who studied at a highly ranked institution with someone who studied at a low ranking one; just like you cannot compare someone who studied in a developed country with someone who studied in a developing one. Quality education is one of the features against which a country’s development is measured, and quality education includes among other things, competent educators. Competent educators influence competent students, who we then label as intelligent because of their ingenuity and wider thinking capacity.
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What I like about school is that it shows you your weaknesses while it also shows you your strengths. Just because I cannot do Maths does not mean get me written off the intelligence slate. Chances are that I am very apt in languages. According to research, individual differences in educational performance are strongly related to differences in intelligence. This means that individuals have different aptitudes, and sometimes that aptitude is not university tailored. Some of the best artists, actresses and businessmen have no degree under their belt, yet still do the most auspicious work which inspires even the degree holders. I’m not against getting qualifies, it’s a good thing to as it equips one with more knowledge and skills in their field, but just do not make the mistake of thinking your ability to attain a degree renders you more intelligent than someone who did not. Intelligence is a very subjective phenomenon, but basically about how you apply learnt skills, even outside the classroom. Albert Einstein put it well when he said “everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.”
Take Bill Gates for example, a very wealthy and successful man who dropped out of Harvard University two years into his degree and later became the co-founder of Microsoft. He is intelligent, and yet he did not have a college degree when he started his company. Additionally, Thomas said motivation plays a big part in a person's grades. A student with mastery-oriented motivation approaches a class with curiosity and an interest in the subject, whereas a student with performance-orientated motivation does so solely from a grade standpoint. “The counter to that is a performance-orientated motivation where you are much more concerned about grades, you don't really care that much about the material of the class,' Thomas said. If people spent the same amount of time working to ensure they retain important information as they did pulling all-nighters to cram for finals, they could become be more intelligent. Students should focus on developing their critical thinking and problem-solving skills rather than simply memorizing information for a test. A transcript only shows a student's motivation, dedication and work ethic — not their personality, humour, work or life experiences. While grades still matter and students should strive to get a 4.0, we need to stop weighing our intelligence through grades and instead recognize that intelligence comes in all forms.
In summary, the whole thing that discuss about how grades matter in life and how the society judge you. There are of example that prove thar getting grades in not the only thing that you need to succussed in your life but there are some other that teacher and parent should teach their students.
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