image from kateonesuch.com
Of course, this also conveniently justifies my decision to give my students less than perfect grades.
To my students past, present and future: The most noble way to learn is from the mistakes of others.
"Tell a little story about this fresh graduate. His GPA is ridiculous, 4.0 or perfect. To top it, he had a perfect A+ for like 90% of his subjects. If there were a 4.3 GPA, he would have come close to that. Unfortunately, he did not get a job offer while his classmates of lower GPA all had offers of $4000+ (he was from the highest paid faculty). He couldn't understand why, went for numerous interviews and all rejected him. In the end, he accepted the only job offer of $1,900.
Looking at his achievements on the resume, you can understand why. He is one-dimensional. Excellent student, straight As all the way from primary school onwards, good CCA, and scored whatever he needed to score, but he did not stand out other than his academic results. What he needed was to show that he had something to contribute to an organization other than just academic brains. It is about the ability to lead, to bring diversity to an organization (or a university) that people want. Not just his scholastic achievement. To be honest, a 3.8 GPA is no different from a 4.0 GPA. If a child spends so much time working on that perfect score, and misses out other aspects, then he is not a valuable person in the university, or in the society.
There will be people with perfect scores, but who can show that they did not spend all their lives just working on that. Their involvement in the society, their backgrounds, their ability to work with people, their contributions and their leadership qualities are what we are looking for. And, you can plan and plan and still not get there. Why? Because it has to come from the heart. And people miss that out. Parents plans too much for their kids and children just execute, without thinking or doing from their hearts. Schools demand and spoon feed too much for kids to do things from the heart.
Another story.
This is like a really average student. His GPA is nothing more than 3.2 in Poly. But this boy is so unique. He started a company, but it failed. He took time off (with his parents' approval) from school and used his skills to help a social enterprise. He did things free for charity organizations because he saw a need. He also helped out in his father's hawker stall and developed new recipes. He knew how to present these all in his resume. He went to a top uni, and then started his own business with funding from the government. I don't mean our kids should not work hard, they should. If a kid can do a perfect score with ENOUGH effort, I'd say go for it! But squeezing every ounce from him to get there because it is what the system tells us to may not be helpful.
Often, we are led to chase after unimportant things and forget to bring the best out of our kids. The paper chase has gone too far, and our kids are asked to do things like CIP hours with no meaning attached. They do them grudgingly and these do not add one bit to their well-being or credentials. It is expensive to bring up a gifted child, of course, but it is expensive to bring up any kind of child. Problem is, with so much resources poured into it, our gifted children are still not having any advantage in the world, or scored any stunning achievement as adults. We should really ask ourselves why. But it is a complex problem, and I don't pretend I have an answer. Also, a good education does not equate good A level score, PSLE score or success in the GEP selection. There are many factors to do well in such tests, we keep forgetting. Some people know not to chase after the distractions, and go for the 'real' things. Those who know what they want, go for the right things, the rest are led to go round and round.
Are you building your child up for his future or just chasing after things people ask you to chase?"
