Academic qualifications are commonly felt to give a person the best chance of success in life. How far is this true? Do school and college grades and examination results provide a way of predicting or ensuring future success? If that is true, then we should encourage as many young people as possible to go to university and work hard to gain formal qualifications. But is it true? Aren’t some college drop-outs like Bill Gates and Richard Branson hugely successful icons of success? And should we automatically consider the millions of young people who have not had the opportunity to gain academic certificates to be failures in life? I know this is kind of random, but today I witnessed one of my fellow students teary getting bombarded with questions by my ***** of a teacher. She said, "Do you want to go anywhere in life, then you better do better on these tests or you'll be a failure." Nice teacher right? But the entire day today I thought about how worked up kids get about grades and colleges and I don't get me wrong, I always am stressed about work and i've always been an A student and I'm not changing my behavior in school, but why do adults assume we'll be successes or failures in life in our teens? I don't know, what do you guys think?
it all depends on what you want to do with your life. "success" and "failure" are relative terms. if you want to be a hobo, and you fail your test, you've still succeeded.
Well if you look it with that mentality, then I guess your right, but I still think grades and SAT scores do not judge you as a human being in terms of creativity, and that my friend really determines a person in my mind-CREATIVITY.
Your future could be summed up in a pie chart, consisting of your dependancy on the following; - Intelligence and Educational success - Motivation, aspiration, mental strength - Luck 2 of those you can change, and by far Education is the easiest to better yourself in. The larger the first 2 segments are in your life, the smaller your dependancy on luck is for success.
I wouldn't say things like tests and school are what make people successful. Moreso, I'd say they give you the tools and knowledge on how to be a success. It's like, you could use one type of weapon in a game that is powerful and with it your chances of winning improve, but you could use a weaker weapon, and still win with skill. However, anything can really happen that could determine what happens in your life. You could have amazing grades and ace High School/College, but still fail in life because of a lack of initiative and motivation. Someone else who isn't as smart and skipped High School could think up an invention that revolutionizes the world, and thus be more successful. I just think School shouldn't be thought of as the only way to be a success in life, but as a tool to help you.
One thing I don't agree with about the school system is that it is not hard, at all. To achieve an A you must simply put time and effort into your work, not intelligence. I would like to have a school system where those who are naturally intelligent in a field can use their intellect to achieve high grades. What good is our current system where it rewards people solely on dedication, and not creativity? How can a system advocating monotony and mindless drone-work possibly be a test for real world success? Some of the smartest people have low grades and some of the dumbest people can have an A, which says that the current system does not challenge students enough. The No Child Left Behind policy helps to keep our current system from actually teaching students.
Because that's not how the real world works. The smart person doesn't get the job, the one who works hard does. Same goes for Uni. And i'm 18 and so far i have been getting A's solely from natural ability. I havn't had to do any revision or work outside of college ever.
I was thinking of it in fields that require a high degree of intelligence (engineering, medicine, scientific research). Dedication simply isn't enough to be successful at the job. Sure you can get the degree, but if you don't have the creative spark for the job, then you chose the wrong career. It is much easier to obtain a skill of dedication if you have creativity, than it is to obtain a skill of creativity if you have dedication.
Through AP classes, in my school at least, I have realized that instead of just basically spending 3 hours studying for a test (otherwise known as determination and hard work as you guys have been talking about), I've had to apply my knowledge on tests rather than straightforward facts. And I must say, I enjoy these classes so much more even with the difficulty because I feel I get so much more out of them. Although, the teachers of these classes really make me work for the grade, I feel more intellectually stable because I had actually learned something in class day-after-day...
As a person who's only major blessing in life may be his creativity, i still have to completely disagree. I study Graphic Designs and Physics, and in the former, i rarely produce work, and am always late to hand in. However i regard my work as of high standard, i get A's and B's which is difficult in an A2 art course, however because of my lack of work and often gaps within creative processes, i lose considerable marks. I find producing work of high standard easy, but it's rare that i even find the motivation to do it. I would regard motivation and willingness to learn much higher to natural ability. I'm in one of the countries top colleges anyway and probably going to Uni. Everyone around me is about as smart, so my natural ability may be out the window for the most part. It's commitment that puts you ahead of the rest.
@Phenomenal I agree, AP classes actually teach you how to think and help you use your particular skills to an advantage. The problem is, not enough students have the will to take these classes. From Wiki (can't find an updated source), the most taken AP exam is US history (~360,000) out of a total of 17 million kids in high school. That is about 4.25 million juniors that have the opportunity to take AP classes (at least, that was the grade I was in when I took that exam). Not all schools have AP classes, and I think it should be required for graduation, but I understand the United States' piss poor funding for schools (and our policy for giving schools in better neighborhoods more money). I can see why atm we can't make AP classes mandatory. Fair enough.
I completely know what you mean. I was talking to an old friend of mine a few years ago (who is actually a drugee now) but was sooooo smart a few years ago. I was like dude you are like the smartest kid in the entire school. He could make all this robot **** and won like a few design in technology competitions in the state and the teachers kept recommending him for all these classes, but I guess he got overwhelmed and dropped out of school but I never knew what the real reason was. But now he's in jail for drugs and I always think about how much he could have affected our society with his creativity, but his will to try something out of the routine of his life was just not there.
Perhaps it was his will to get out of the routine of life that led him down his path? It sounds quite tangiable, but i won't go off topic. Anyway, i do agree that natural ability is not held in high account, especially in the UK and particularly in secondary schools (11-16). I just feel that long-term, focus, commitment and motivation will propel someone much further than a gift, and more than ever in the present day. Also i feel we have the unified opinion that education and intelligence, willingness to work and learn and motivation, and also luck can combine to create a successful future. Different paths can reach the same outcome. I always feel you should do what your comfortable with, and be what you want to be, no matter what anyone else thinks of it.
Any form of education better your odds of being sucessful but theres no guarentees for anything. Also on rare ocasions individuals can be sucessful with out an education such as some artists and or a person with talent or inventer. Im in engineering and it requires alot of skills learned but there are parts that come naturaly that help you out and that you don't learn in a book.Haveing creative ideas and concepts help you out alot. Its better to have a degree showing you have an education than not it will make you stand out from one who doesn't.
“Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” -John Wooden By this quote, which i believe is true, success has nothing to do with school or education, but determination. Did you do your best? Did you become your best? Education may make you smarter, but does it help you do better? Does it make closer to being your best? I believe it can but does not neccessarily apply to every situation. This Is very true, but it is 3 different categories, not just two. If your are motivated(2) then the less you are dependent on Intelligence(1) and Luck (3), same goes for all situations. If you are naturally lucky (unlikely) your need less to intelligence and motivation to succeed.
Isn't Wooden like 100000000 years old???? Haha no but I definitely get what you and a lot of people are saying. It's the will and motivation to be successful and do something with your life. Although, natural intelligence is inevitable for some and luck is obviously rare, determination and perserverence definitely gives you the best chances of overcoming any lack of education or knowledge whatsoever.