The school is the place of nostalgia. The place of fear, panic, fun and Friends, of course, has turned into a cherished past in our memory eventually.
But not to forget, it was a place for getting marks and grades. First girl/boy, the place we all wanted so badly, how can we ignore this part?
Yes, results were a big part of the school, and I remember how my mom and dad compared my results to those of some other classmates and how I hated that!
No wonder, every student has gone through this interrogation and comparison period at least once in their school life.
That panicked and scared moment when your class teacher is about to distribute your grade cards, how can we forget those?
And opening those cards like we are about to open a punch box! But now, when we are successful in our lives or when we are not, sometimes a thought pops up: were those grades and mark sheets necessary?
Do they matter?
No, they don’t. Once someone told me, “Stay in school, work hard, get good grades, and go to college. Do these things, and some day you’ll be successful.”
That is the biggest lie one can ever hear. I remember, dad saying how much board grades helps you to become successful and how I am going to relax all my life after getting excellent marks.
Here, I’m gonna say, thank you mum and dad, for misleading me so bad! No, I don’t blame them; I don’t blame any parents out there because they have been treated like this when they were in schools.
The whole education system of our country is to blame for these things.
This system educated us and gave us grades, but no, it hasn’t taught us how to be successful.
Here, I’m going to point out some faults of our schools or the education system, and how they mistreat us.
Failure?
A big no! Yes, that is what our school grades and education systems have taught us. You can’t fail.
It is just not okay to fail. If you are a failure, everyone will call you a loser, sometimes even teachers too.
Mum dad will look at you like you are never going to achieve anything in your life.
But failure is the pillar of success. If you can’t accept failure, you cannot achieve anything.
Before getting to the top, you have to know what its base is! But school grades never taught us this.
Hobby?
What’s that? Well, yes you are allowed to have a hobby but only when you don’t have your studying thing around.
You cannot give more preference to your hobbies.
Passion is nothing, studying what your class teacher has taught is everything. This is how the root of the talents is smashed Nowadays; success is far too out.
Competition is everything.
If you aren’t competing, you are nothing. Don’t help anyone; focus on yourself.
Where schools are supposed to teach us the greatness of sharing, they strive more to make us selfish.
The characteristics of the Indian education system are pretty well summed up in the points mentioned above. Then the question arises: How are the grade marks going to help us in the future? Certainly, it doesn’t.
It fails to teach us the primary lessons of our life. How can someone expect it to help us in future?
Besides all these moral characters, there are some logical sides too. Schools always test our memories, not our intelligence.
Have you ever realized this point? Schools and our so-called education system always put our minds on some grade scale, but never our intelligence.
It never rewards our creativity.
It rewards how much information we can swallow, doesn’t matter whether we are capable of understanding that or not.
And those students, who thrive to become the topper, try their level best to fit in this test. But unfortunately, they don’t realize they are losing their intelligence.
What will happen if you don’t use a particular gadget for a long time? It will be rusted. In the same way, when students don’t use their brains and creativity for a long time, they cease to exist.
Real-life requires different types of skills. It needs the skill of survival. It needs the skill of embracing failure. It requires the skill of accepting you for who you are. It needs confidence. Brutally enough, school grades don’t teach us all these.
And if you will consider your career aspect, you will see how your grade cards are exempted from all things in life.
People don’t care whether you were a topper or not, they will only consider whether you are fittest in the job arena or not.
They will place your creativity, your fluency in the language, and your other co-curriculum activities before your school grades.
Your board grades will hardly matter. Your in-field experience will make you successful eventually.
Success depends on your passion, dedication, and consistent effort towards the goal you have. A good grade shows your dedication and constant effort towards your academics, not your effort and dedication towards your goal.
The path of success is too harder than getting a good grade. You have to sacrifice other things, stand up even if nothing is happening in your way, think and work practically to achieve that and deal with reality, not with only textbooks.
Don’t believe my words? Well, here is the list of famous dropouts:
1. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple. The most successful entrepreneur in the whole world. Dropped out at 19.
2. Funny lady Ellen Degeneres- dropped out at 22.
3. Mark Zuckerberg left the university to invest in Facebook.
4. Brad Pitt dropped out of his journalism degree at 22.
5. Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter, dropped out at 20.
6. Larry Elison dropped out at 20. Founder of Oracle.
7. John Mackey dropped out at 23, founder of Whole Foods.
8. Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder, dropped out at 19.
9. Bill Gates dropped out at 22, founder of Microsoft.
10. F. Scott Fitzgerald dropped out because of poor grades.
11. John Lenon: He was expelled from his university.
12. Tomas Edison: Expelled from school because of poor grades.
13. Walt Disney: Dropped out at 16!
14. Abraham Lincoln: He dropped out at 12 and ended up being president!
15. Michael Dell dropped out at 19, founder of Dell.
16. Jan Koum, founder of Whatsapp. I dropped out at 21.
17. Travis Kalanick, founder of Uber, dropped out at 19.
18. Paul Ellen dropped out at 23, co-founder of Microsoft.
19. Oprah Winfrey dropped out of university at 22.
20. Daniel Ek, founder of Spotify. Dropped out of university.
21. Sofia Omarosa, founder of Nasty Gel, dropped out at 21.
22. Arsh Ferdowsi left MIT and founded DropBox.
Yes, this list is too long to carry on here. You can Google anytime to know more about the famous dropouts.
They are a living example of how a school is not the only key to becoming successful in our lives.
School grades aren’t the only ray of hope. School grades don’t matter, apparently. What matters are your skills. Your passion for your goal. Efforts and dedication to make you a greater person.
But don’t be too fascinated by these dropouts. There are surely fortunate people around us, but somewhere there are exceptions.
Not all school or university dropouts make it successful every time. This needs courage and confidence.
Here is my suggestion: don’t push too hard to make your grades good. Don’t lose your creativity and brain for your stupid grades.
Learn to embrace failure.
Be confident.
Be yourself. And do what you want to do in your life.
And I promise, your school grades won’t ever come in scenes in your entire lives.