High school was great to me. I can say I truly enjoyed attending school (Excluding waking up at 7 am for class) because of the classmates, school activities, teachers, and the value of school. Alright, the last one is indeed true, I just didn’t realize it until years after. However, talking about my high school experience would be boring & cliche. Instead, I am going to explain the most valuable lesson I learned.
The lesson I learned: Equity > Equality
Sorry if you were expecting something groundbreaking. The lesson may seem obvious, but let me explain my reasoning before you judge me any further.
People had very different experiences in high school. This ranges from the best time of their lives to the worst four years. I was definitely the person who enjoyed my time there compared to my friends. I believe my happiness came because I knew that high school bring absolutely no value to my career. Oh, you say that high school students should work hard to get into post-secondary? Yeah, that also has (Generally) no value.
I knew that employers will never ask me what grade I got in grade 12 English class or my mark psychology in university. I had one goal in every class. Get the bare minimum to get into meet my goal. The goal was to be accepted to the university. “Why worry about getting an 80 when all I need was a 70?” My teachers didn’t think my way of thinking would get me far in life. “You should always try your best.” said every teacher and principle that would listen to my rant on the value of school.
Do I always give the bare minimum? Of course not! I gave everything in life 100%. Anyone who says this is lying. This reminds me when I got hired as a dishwasher when I was 16. The manager said, “We need passionate people working here!” I was a dishwasher… so I guess I’m supposed to be passionate about washing dishes? Not happening. I came in to do my job for a pay and nothing more.
Teachers and employers, you want students or employees to be as hardworking and productive as possible? Ask them what is their an ideal environment, compensation, and work-life-balance is. I know it is almost impossible to meet everyone expectations, but I guarantee that asking and compromising on some request will improve quality of work and productive.
Now with that being said, this hardly happens.
Even though school was an environment I could succeed in, I knew I did not need to. Why should I? So I can brag to others about getting an A or maybe so I can get into a school where I can get a degree that isn’t valued by employers or to myself?
I got below average to average grades in advance/university courses in high school and that’s was fine with me. Getting those grades can get me into most programs in Canadian post-secondary.
Conclusion: If I had an environment that suited me, I would have excelled. Instead, I coasted. Unforently, this does not work for everyone. Change the environment to suit the person and then everyone can be truly “successful”.
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