I think a lot about what we’re accidentally teaching along the way.
Schools do a great job of teaching students that grades are a direct map of intellect. “Smart -> Good Grades. Not Smart -> Bad Grades.”
Now, you might not believe that. I don’t. But the school system does. And the students learn.
What Good Grades actually indicate is “Good at Getting Good Grades.” That’s a complex constellation of skills, intellect, demeanor, ambition, parent income, and many other outside factors.
Being good at getting good grades isn’t bad. But neither is being bad at getting good grades. There are plenty of brilliant people who graduated high school with low GPAs.
And I think some large percentage of them left school thinking not that they were bad at school but that they were bad at life, or bad at success, or bad at learning.
That’s a terrible lesson to accidentally teach. And so I am constantly constantly reinforcing that grades aren’t all they’re made out to be, and that my students (and children) need to assess themselves based on their own criteria, not the criteria listed on the report card.
We have to recognize, and then work to counterbalance, accidental lessons.