Letter Chasing Vs Learning

This topic is one that hits close to home for me, and it is one that I do not look forward to dealing with when I am a teacher. Before I go on I must admit that I am very guilty of being a letter chaser. A letter chaser is someone who goes to school with the mindset of putting more emphasis on getting an A rather than learning the material. After my four years of high school and now into my second year of college I have learned the power of learning instead of chasing the letter.

From the very beginning of high school I was always told that A’s were the goal, and doing the extra work would pay off in the long run. Well this might be true, and I am not so naive to think that grades don’t play a factor in getting into colleges and other life impacting areas such as scholarships and awards. However, in this post I hope to give you a different mindset the next time you find yourself chasing the letter.

Like I mentioned above, I am a letter chaser. I am your stereotypical 4.0 GPA highschooler who did everything right. I thought that getting the 4.0 would make me feel great and accomplished, but if I were to give any high schooler advice today, I would tell them to not even look at their GPA. I know you think I am crazy! I spent hours a night studying, and I definitely missed my fair share of highschool sporting events because of this. It’s times like this where I wish I could go back and tell myself to go to that basketball or football game because highschool is a time where teenagers make memories and you sure can’t brag to you kids about how much time you spent studying! 

Another angle on this topic that has affected my life is the emphasis on learning. Everyone knows that once you take a test that you can just forget all that information and start storing the new material for the next test right? WRONG! Why do we even go to school? Is it to get the A in the class or is it to learn the material. An example of this in my life is in high school my math teacher let us use notes, calculators, and a unit circle on all the tests. Well if you are dedicated enough to take the time to take good notes, you don’t need to learn the material for the tests. When you end up going to a college where they outlaw calculators and expect you to know your unit circle, the game gets a whole lot harder. (Moral of the story: Know the Unit Circle!)

My third and final point in arguing against chasing the letter is just being prepared for real life. Yes, I agree that getting a good GPA might get you a job interview over someone else. However, the interviewer can already see and expect that anyone with the degree to know the material that is associated with that degree. So in an interview when all I can share are my stories on how I studied really hard, I can see how I would not be the best candidate for the job. I even see it here in college where I know super smart people who will land every interview they apply for but they may not land the job. My advice, don’t spend all your time for the interview, spend more time for the job.

To finish off this long winded rant; yes, I agree with you that getting good grades is important! They can get you into college and maybe get you some scholarships. I just hope the next time you are sitting at the end of the semester begging to get your grade rounded up that you remember the reason why we are all in school. And that reason is to LEARN!
Finally, as a future teacher, I hope my students can take pride in the failures and the stumbles that come along with school. To end in a cheesy quote, “You learn more from failure than you ever do from success.” Happy Learning!