Who Needs Effort?
heard a commercial today that is indicative of where we are at as a society. It was all about the "proven success" of a program that allows kids to "easily and consistently" scores "A’s" on school tests. How to take tests, how to pass tests, how to get A’s every time, using proven techniques. The commercial declared that the reason for academic failure was that there is just too much to learn. It’s too hard. Too much. The answer? Don’t learn, don’t cut back, don’t change the education system... just use proven techniques to pass tests. America in a nutshell, 21st century style. Self esteem; quick and easy; image over substance; recognition instead of effort... get the grade; don’t work hard; get the goal without the actual sacrifice. Do whatever it takes to get ahead without actually striving, learning, sweating, failing, trying over and over, learning from mistakes.
Since when is "getting the grade" the real goal? I thought the grade was the measurement that showed you achieved the REAL goal? (learning, creating, producing, trying, etc)
Of course it is promoted that your kids self esteem will soar. They’ll be an IDIOT, but at least they will have good grades and feel good about themselves... and they won’t have to "suffer" through the hard work of learning when there are parties and movies to tend to.
Give me a kid, or person, who will try, try, try, try and try again... failure after failure, never giving up, and I’ll take them ANY DAY over the kid who has a sky high opinion of themselves (self esteem), who shortcuts everything and who gets all the grades (and style, popularity, friends, recognition) but skates through life.
I tell my kids, my employees, and those I mentor that I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR GRADE, YOUR RESULT OR YOUR ACHIEVEMENT (primarily). Those things only measure the quality of the journey and the effort (assuming they are genuine methods of measurements).
I tell my kids, "I don’t care if you make an F if you work your butt off, try as hard as you possibly can, and never give up. On the other hand, I have no respect for an A if you skate, shortcut and put in little effort except to pass tests."
Parents, if you think "getting an ‘A’" is so important you will buy your kid a program that teaches them how to do it "everytime, easily" without actually having to learn the material... then you have no clue what real parenting is, or character, or true success.
If you have no clue what the big deal is... you’re probably part of the image-over-substance culture that makes this program a viable product today. It would have been laughed off the shelves a couple of generations ago. ~
