Success. Everyone wants it. Not all have the work ethic to get it. Students often define success as graduating from school and receiving a piece of paper. All of these diplomas representing,"success", look the same except for the name. Many distinguish these diplomas from one another with the GPA associated with them. The higher the GPA associated with the diploma, the more successful that person was. This is an easy and fair way to compare diplomas. However, a better indicator of success lies in the the time and effort spent to receive that diploma. A GPA shows how successful a student WAS in school, while the time and effort spent to receive the diploma shows how successful WILL be in the future.
Some students can put forth very little effort and earn an A, while some students can study and work extremely hard and only earn a B. The, "smarter", students often score the highest on final exams. They are rewarded with pretty stickers and candy for good grades. Their parents and relatives smile and say how proud of them they are. The school system rewards the, "smart", students with special events, certificates, or by printing their name in the newspaper. These naturally smart students go through school without having to work all that hard. Good grades come naturally to them. Both the students born with God given ability and the students who have to work hard to earn the grade can graduate from high school and college, yet the students whom have worked their tails off for the past seventeen years have the advantage in the workplace. They have the perseverance and hard work ethic that the students who had their back rubbed all the way through school don't have.
There must be some way to instill a good work ethic in the students with God given ability. The North Carolina education system uses the AIG program to help the, "smart", students.
AIG, academically or intellectually gifted, is a program in the North Carolina public school system. Starting in the third grade students with exceptionally high End Of Grade test scores are given an IQ test to see how "smart" they are. If a student scores high enough, they will be admitted in to the AIG program. AIG students receive extra, more advanced, instruction outside of their normal classroom instruction. The AIG teacher pulls students from their normal classes once a week and teaches them advanced material on every subject. The program is supposed to give students that get bored easily in their normal classes a chance to work harder and learn at a faster pace.
This system should work perfectly for the naturally gifted students. Yet, many AIG students drop out of college after the first semester. The math program in North Carolina is a prime reason for this. The program lays out every single dad gum thing that each and every student should know at each grade level. Teachers receive a textbook that tells them what they have to teach each year and how they are supposed to teach it. It seems a little robotic to me. My dad, as an AIG teacher, is supposed to be there to teach extra, more exciting and challenging, math material. Ah, but it is a catch 22. Students must show their work on how they came to an answer. Sounds fair enough. But if there is an easier more efficient way of getting to this answer, their work is counted, "wrong", even though they got the right answer. My dad teaches his students these easier, more efficient ways to solve problems, but when his students go back to their normal classes they are not allowed to use their new and improved method. Yes, these new and improved methods that my dad teaches his students do not always explicitly show why the answer is what it is. But, most AIG students are able to understand why an answer is what it is rather quickly. The real world is about efficiency. Yet, we are teaching students that efficiency is not highly valued.
AIG students will still sit in class, excelling at everything they do because it easy. Few will actually be challenged. Many of my brilliant AIG friends will be come home and not return to college next semester because the work load of college was too much of a shock. The teachers are not at the root of the problem. They teach what they are trained to teach. The individuals that run the education department at the state level are at fault. Doing the same the thing over and over again and expecting better results is foolish. Somebody should tell this to our lawmakers. North Carolina is ranked near the bottom checking at an number 37 and number 47 in total spending on education. These numbers will stay steady unless something changes.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/02/why-writers-are-the-worst-procrastinators/283773/
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