School. One of the only words that can make your heart race just at the sound of it. After going to school for the last decade, we are all quite familiar with what it is and how ‘good’ we are at it. School is a place designed to help us gain the many skills necessary to thrive in society, but instead of feeling like a helpful environment, it is instead full of stress and the deep fear of failing. 

Grades: 

Learning being grade-focused is not successful when mixed with a generation of increased mental health issues. Tests, GPA calculations, and quizzes cause students to believe that numbers matter more than growth. Instead of asking yourself, “Did I learn something?” we ask, “What score did I get?” This overwhelming pressure makes one bad grade feel like you ruined the future of your success. The fear of failure overrides the want to genuinely gain something. Why do you think so many people cheat? It’s because we have learned to be more afraid of a number than of not learning anything at all.

Shallow Learning:

This learning technique requires students to focus on skills such as memorization and repetition to learn. To achieve these skills means to not grasp a deeper meaning. Studying means memorizing, and not really learning. The information is immediately gone after turning in the test we crammed our brains with facts and formulas for. Over time, learning this way can start to seem pointless or temporary. We are now wired to think of class as something to get through rather than an opportunity to engage and gain knowledge.

Self Worth:

A grade-based system is something that can negatively affect students’ self worth. When grades  are treated as the main measure of success and smarts, students may start to compare their value with their academic performance. This goes both ways too, high grades or low. High achieving students gain the pressure to remain ‘perfect’, while others may feel discouraged when their grades are not perfect enough. This can lead to unhealthy comparisons that damage confidence, even though your intelligence can not be defined by a single number.

Preparedness:

So you can solve for x, but have you learned how to pay your taxes? This is a big problem when it comes to the way schools teach us. Success is something that is rarely based on memorization alone. Skills like critical thinking, communication, problem solving, and the ability to adapt are just a few of the many skills that matter far more. We are learning how to be successful in the school world, but not in the real world. “When will I ever use this after high school?” is a common question asked when learning these pointless formulas and memorized information. Students know that after their unit test, we most likely won’t ever look at or have to solve another question similar to that ever again. 

Education is something that should be more than remembering facts for a test. It should help students develop skills and knowledge, an understanding of the world, and overall growth as a person. While grades may be necessary, it is important to remember that a letter grade doesn’t define you, popularity isn’t everything, and needing more support in school than others doesn’t make you less than. High school is just a moment of time in our long lives and these four years are not at all a reflection of your future success.