A recent study by researchers at the
Students often confuse the level of effort with the quality of work. There is a mentality in students that ‘if I work hard, I deserve a high grade.’
Jason Greenwood, a senior kinesiology major at the
“I think putting in a lot of effort should merit a high grade,” Mr. Greenwood said. “What else is there really than the effort that you put in?”
“If you put in all the effort you have and get a C, what is the point?” he added. “If someone goes to every class and reads every chapter in the book and does everything the teacher asks of them and more, then they should be getting an A like their effort deserves.
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This is what is wrong with our education system and a symptom of the nanny-culture we have created in this country.
Our classrooms have become so sanitized and coddled that we have promised our kids success if the merely show up. Think about it, how many studies, commercials and lectures have you heard that say “If you go to college you will succeed, if you go to college you will make more money”. The emphasis is on “go”. As if you go university osmosis will take over and you will achieve great things. It trickles down (or trickled up) from High Schools too. We have told our kids for so long that they are special, that they are all winners, that they all can be anything they want to be. Surprisingly they all believed it (real shocker there)
Guess what kiddies, you all won’t save the world, you all won’t do great things… unless you freakin try hard and actually achieve something, you actually have to learn something and you actually have to do something with what you are taught.
We are living in a nanny-state where failure is rewarded and mediocrity is championed. Welcome to
This is the War on Achievement
ReplyDeleteI have always thought that effort is overrated. Work smarter not harder.
Scrubbing a toilet is a lot harder than pushing these keys, but I make a lot more money pushing keys.
I suppose it took effort to get the professional key pusher job, but I didn't cry when I got a D in college. I knew that's what my work deserved.
The Gentleman's B is term used at many of this nations prestigious universities to mean that you essentially deserve a B because you were smart enough to get into said university.
ReplyDeleteThe really sad part about all of this is our colleges and universities are rank on their graduation rates... how on earth is that an effective measure of education?
Colleges are therefore encouraged to pass kids and keep them moving through the system... hey wait, that sounds like our public high school system as well.
I'm biased here, but Georgia Tech takes pride in giving lots of kids a chance (its not like getting into Harvard) but it also takes pride in kicking you the fock out if you can't hack it. Now you tell me what makes more sense? Keeping kids in a university based on their high school achievement or kicking them out of college based on their collegiate achievement?
Much like many other things in this country (housing, health care, a debt- and credit-based economy), I don't see how our current system of education can sustain itself. Standardized testing is a joke, and I've long heard (anecdotely) from friends of mine that went to ivy league schools that, by far, the "hard part is getting in."
ReplyDeleteDon't even get me started on US News rankings...
ding ding ding
ReplyDeleteJimmy, you really do get it don't you?
ditto.
Speak for yourselves man. I went to the highly prestigious University at Buffalo.
ReplyDeleteNumerous times have been ranked in the top ten nationally. (party school rankings)