The fear of failing in school is a common problem among students all over the world. When applying for internships and positions within school clubs your GPA is required. However, this begs the question of GPA leading to future success among students in both high school and college.
Fun Fact: GPAs do not CAUSE future success, in fact students with higher grades tend to have lower innovation skills.
After researching this topic, I understand that GPAs do not determine one’s future success. These critical skills do:
- Passion/Enthusiasm
- Innovation
- Critical Thinking
- Time Management
- Goal Setting
- Interpersonal Skills
- Networking
These skills are essential when succeeding in a job, and can be taught through extra-curricular activities, critical thinking courses, and internship experiences.
https://theconversation.com/straight-a-students-may-not-be-the-best-innovators-5440
Resilience is also an important factor when determining future success because this teaches students to learn, but persevere after setbacks.
Throughout the researching process, I concluded that failing in classes, and not meeting your goals develops resilience. Resilience is an integral part of succeeding in your career, but also a life skill. Obstacles will be faced in both social and career related goals, however it is up to you whether you overcome the challenge or you let it bring you down. Overcoming obstacles is related to my research because it is frustrating when someone doesn’t get the internship they want or they fail an exam.
https://theconversation.com/straight-a-students-may-not-be-the-best-innovators-5440
I believe that there is a flaw in the educational system. Teachers, the Board of Education, and society put a heavy importance on the grade a student receives at the end of their high school and collegiate career. Famous CEOs such as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg did not attend college, and therefore did not have a GPA.
Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and 21 other tech moguls who never graduated college
Grades are not the determining factor of future success, and skills such as innovation and especially time management create entrepreneurial spirit.
An example scenario is:
A student who prioritizes their GPA takes easy classes to maintain that GPA. This does not teach resilience or difficulty, which is unrealistic for a working setting. There will be setbacks in everyone’s job. Whether this is a setback in making the wrong calculation in an excel formula, misdiagnosing a patient, or teaching the wrong formula to a student. Mistakes happen in every profession, and it is important for students to learn about failure early, so they can LEARN from their mistakes. Hence, taking harder classes will push students to learn in an engaged manner that requires them to WORK for their grade.
I chose this topic because I believed that my high school and college GPA were everything. This mindset caused me to lose focus on what college was meant for the experience. The experience that college provides is unmatched, and it allows you to make mistakes, and change your future path.