Students today place much of their focus on getting the best possible grades and top-notch accolades in order to be “successful.” Now, this might not be a problem if students were educated to the degree that shows on their college applications. But, because of the heavy influence on getting good grades, students have lost focus on actually learning.

The majority of students polled at AHS, 62 percent, agree that they like to learn, though approximately 47 percent also state that the existence of grades hinders their learning.

“If I have a good grade in a class I feel like I don’t have to worry about it and everything is under control. When I receive a bad grade I get down on myself real hard and take my free time and work on school more,” junior Eric Stavenjord said. “However, grades don’t mean anything. A super smart kid can just not want to put in the time or effort and receive bad grades.”

If most students love to learn, then why do they feel their grades impede their education? Some believe the answer, or trouble, comes in the form of standardization.

“Einstein once said that if you determine how smart a fish is by how well it can climb a tree then it will continue its entire life thinking about how dumb it is,” junior Jenny Jessen said. “You cannot standardize humankind, and you should in no way try to standardize the way one is evaluated. Standardized methods for grading are basically like asking everyone to fit through square holes, even if they aren’t a square.”

Education pioneers like Sir Ken Robinson have noted that our current model of education hails from an industrial era of standardization, where everybody was viewed as the same and there was little room for creativity. According to Robinson, students’ natural genius erodes as they are put through a standardized system of assessment and lose their yearning for education.

“Each student needs his or her own pace of learning. If a student is a slow learner, he or she needs to be specially taken care of to be given the right amount of education. If a student is a fast learner, we can’t just hold them back, but give them the opportunity to enhance more,” senior Sami Al said.

Some argue that standards motivate people, while others say that they lead to apathy.

“Standards basically promote learning just enough to pass and that is the end of it. The way I learn has drastically changed, and I feel like I’m not as motivated to ‘reach for the stars’ because I don’t see the point if I get the same credit for barely getting off the ground,” Jessen said.

Jessen is a former student of the Montessori educational method. The method stresses individual learning, and some schools have been known to incorporate mixed-aged classrooms as well. Students are given a choice of what they wish to do within a range of topics and have the choice to decide for themselves.

“I have taught myself to learn [for high school] in complete contrast to the way that I learn best. It seems like I’ve taught myself to learn for a test, and forget a good deal of the information as soon as I get the graded work back. The standardized grading system has led to success becoming a superficial concept,” Jessen said.

The state of our education today in the U.S. is believed to be caused by the cultural beliefs that some hold.

“Americans do not value education in the way other cultures do. This leads to underachievement in education. Policy makers try to fix this by creating standards to which everyone is accountable,” physics teacher Thomas Chorman said. “This creates a structure in which the end result of a grade is favored over meaningful education. It’s not just a change in policy that is required to change our educational system. We also need a shift in our cultural values.”

Many teachers believe that educating students is difficult when students do not care about the content they are learning.

“It’s ridiculously frustrating as a teacher. The material is the most important part, not the grade,” English teacher Stefanie Guffey said. “[Students] are the same in college. This generation is so focused on the accomplishments. They can’t focus on the journey, or the lesson learned.”

An education should provide people what they need to be successful, but being successful academically, or otherwise, is surely not solely determined by looking good on paper. In the survey, approximately 56 percent of students said that they care more about being successful financially and securing a living than bettering both themselves and the world.

The school system might be the reason why many are superficial when it comes to their education and individual ideas of accomplishment.

“Success is determined by the number of acolytes one receives, specifically those with high standing, and the amount of money one makes,” Jessen said. “But if you are good at what you do, what you enjoy, or even if you aren’t, but have managed to enjoy your life to the fullest, then you should be considered successful,”

A formal education is also not the only way to become accomplished.

“[To be successful] you have to have that drive within you that wants to do something no matter what,” Stavenjord said.

Success cannot really be standardized, so isn’t it natural that education should not be either?

“Maybe with the installment of a new education system, people will be judged on their ability to swim, rather than their ability to climb a tree,” Jessen said.