Is going to school and getting good grades a measure of intelligence? What are your thoughts on this? Do we all need to go to school to be intelligent? Or is there something else that needs to be done? Share your thoughts with us.”
While I was still teaching in a nursery school, it was the closing of the term and parents trooped in to collect their children's report cards. I could remember one yelling at the daughter because her position was not the 1st.
Aside from this particular scenario, this is something most of us experienced while growing up, especially if you are from Nigeria. It takes a lot of guts to go to school to get your report cards on the closing day especially if you know that you didn't perform very well during the exams. It becomes more unfortunate for you if your parents get to receive your results before you get there.
Also, in a case where the grades are announced publicly and others are receiving prizes while you are not called out. Of course, your parents will be there too and looking at you. In situations like this, some children may be urinating in their pants or sweating profusely because of what will ensue when they get home.
Fortunately for me, I was always topping especially from nursery to mid-secondary level. I never had issues with my parents except in two terms. In the first case, I was forced to explain to my parents why I took the second position and if the person that took the first position had dual heads or if he/she lived in the sky. My parents never wanted me to be placed in the second position and they did their possible best to support my academics.
During the second encounter, I was battling with a 7th position but my grades were not so bad. That's when my parents started realizing that position is not a measure of intelligence.
Well, I consider someone to be intelligent when he or she can use whatever is upstairs to recreate something useful and meaningful in life.
We all know of most of our famous inventors, most of them were school dropouts but yet they made remarkable inventions that have greatly helped us today. Therefore, going to school and getting good grades should not be a yardstick for measuring one's intelligence in this prester century.
After my high school education, I realized that the real world needed creative people to survive. Creativity pops up from the place of critical thinking. Using what you have upstairs, your common sense to produce something you could make a living from. In most countries, there are no jobs but students are graduating every year and roaming the streets in search of jobs. The labour market is filled with the most competent hands, and those with high qualifications too.
Last year, I spoke with a young guy who happened to be a cryptocurrency enthusiast. He studied economics. He said that he stumbled on one of his lecturers, a renowned one at that particular university. The man wasn't doing well, with all his degrees, and qualifications. He had a rich knowledge of economics yet he wasn't able to practicalize it. The guy stated that he wasn't even that sound in economics, yet he was managing to pass, but today, he is doing well in the crypto industry.
The world doesn't care about your class grades but what you bring forth to the table that can better the lives of humans. Every day, I keep on seeing people that don't even know how to speak English, they haven't even seen the four worlds of a school yet they are doing well whereas our so-called first-class graduates are begging to get jobs from them.
I am in no way kicking against good grades but I believe that intelligence is creativity. So, while I was a teacher I would always look out for those creative traits in my pupils as small as they were. I tried as much as possible to develop them. I made them enjoy what they were good at regarding their cognitive skills. And I encouraged parents to help them develop these skills.
