Do we live in a mark orientated society?  

A society where you are been thought of as a good student  if you have a high percentage on your report? Are we raising kids with tunnel vision? Going through life believing that your worth as a humanbeing depends on the mark that you get for a test?

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I have a girl in my class, who will everytime when I give them something to complete, want to know if they are getting a mark for it. This made me realise that she is raised in a way that marks are important and if you do not get a mark for something you just do not do it.

A lot of parents raise their kids in this way - if you do not get good marks in school you are in trouble.  If you do not sit still in class, we have to give you a pill to calm you down.  Let us put you in a little box that is acceptable according to society's standards.

I am not saying that you must not encourage your child to do their best in school, but must we raise a textbook orientated generation, that can only study like a parrot and not figure things out for themselves or do research on what they are interested in, or develop their own talents and personalities?

Not all children are going to become doctors or laywers, not all children are going to get 90% in a test, but some children, even with low marks in school, has more general knowledge than their parents, has more talent than their peers and can fix a car or a bike in a heartbeat.

                       

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Does this mean that they are worse off than the child with the high marks? No, no and again no.

I think my kids are so sick of hearing me say the following Do some extra research on any topics you find interesting, build something, play outside, go to work with your parents, buy and sell something,  think for yourselves, you do not only have to do the work I give you, broaden your horizons and do not have tunnel vision.

In the era we live in, it is some much easier for kids to gather information.  It is not wrong if they do extra work by themselves, enjoy feeding and caring for animals more than they enjoy their school work and learn from life rather than books. (unfortunately most schools are still stuck on what can you remember what you have studied from the book and what mark will you get, rather than you can read and understand well, so the possibilities for learning new things are infinite)

                                                     

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In our country it is  law that kids must attend school or be schooled at home, and yes it is good for kids to learn, because we cannot go through life without knowledge, but we sure as hell do not have to be little robots and only do something for a mark, only study what the school say or only read what they give us to read.

                                                     

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Believe it or not, we get parents that complain because the teacher was 5 minutes late in class, or did not teach and repeat herself the whole period, or a child did not get full marks for a test and the question that he got wrong was not from the work in the book... (Uhm general knowledge much??)

So to all parents I want to say , do not label your child as good or bad, or clever or not,  according to their marks, do not let them feel inferior because they are not interested in what the syllabus says, rather encourage them to find themselves, to do their best (even if it is 40%) and to better themselves in their own way 

and most importantly...

THINK FOR THEMSELVES AND GATHER INFORMATION OR PRACTICE IN WHAT MAKES THEM TICK.

                                            

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Some wonderful artists and businessmen never fared well in school, but they sure are living a great life.

So no, not getting 80% for every subject is not going to determine if you will make a success of your life or not.  

Not all of us are good at just re-stating facts and getting high marks for it, some of us are better at doing something else.

Climb out of the box and see your kids for who they are and teach them what they really can become.

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