kevin p. siu musings on technology, politics, and the world

Academic Competition

In the age of universal education, a new problem has appeared before us. With so many students, and so much pressure from parents and teachers, students have been driven to competition like never before. The focus in the classroom has shifted from learning to 'getting high marks'. So much so that in fact, students no longer absorb information for the sake of learning, but pound it into their brains to get that coveted "perfect" on the next test, quiz, or exam.

Don't believe me? What are the first words uttered by your friends beside you after getting a test handed back to you? Of course, being bombarded by a series of "What'd you get?"'s is not quite that pleasant, especially if the mark wasn't all that stellar. When the teacher posts 'anonymous' mark updates, the first thing everyone does is crowd around to guess who's who on the mark lists.

The problem goes beyond simple curiosity in the classroom - in fact, the problem wouldn't be a problem if people merely wanted to find out how they are doing compared to others. The problem comes when friends start conspiring against other students with higher marks. This is all too common in the AP classes. Groupwork is no longer done with friends to have a good and friendly atmosphere; groups are now formed well in advance when people make 'deals' with each other in order to achieve the highest marks. What's the deal with that? It has never failed to amaze me every time I see it happen.

Even in grade 10 and 11, when marks don't matter for university or college (exception to the rare student who wishes to go to the States), I see people getting all moody and upset over tests, and even resorting to begging the teacher for better marks (no, I'm not talking about marking mistakes, but real errors that are argued extensively over) - though the people who do this are generally not the ones who need it.

Of course, a little competition will never hurt in the motivation of oneself, but not at the level that I am seeing it at right now. A few people I know (I won't mention any names) always start a conversation with "What did you get in the last test?" or "I had a XX in that course, can you beat me?" I find this extremely annoying, and is becoming one of my pet peeves. In my opinion, I know what I know, and I know that I don't need marks to prove myself so, I don't need to flaunt them in front of people to feel better.

Our schools are now measured by inept benchmarks that nobody except the principal and the government take seriously. Why must they keep comparing schools with one another, and use numbers to represent something as complicated as education? One only needs to pop their head into an AP classroom to see how learning takes a backseat to marks. Universal testing is a waste of time and effort that yields no useful results, and should be scrapped. It's not like there's been any positive change from the testing. If anything, the disparity between the 'upper academic class' and the 'lower academic class' (read: AP and Applied) is growing. The nonchalant attitude in the applied/college and even academic/university classes is a huge contrast to the constant pressure of the AP classes. In a way, we (as in gifted/AP students) have something to learn about school - marks are not the be all and end all of our lives. There are so many more things to do while we're still young than worry so much about having to 'beat' everyone else. Take the stress out of school and learn while you can, enjoy the rest of your time while you aren't.