Our whole lives, grades have defined us and our worth. In elementary, high school, and university, the marks you get dictate whether you are smart. But what does being smart even mean?
Does it mean being the only person in your class understanding Shakespeare’s Hamlet? Does it mean being able to calculate anything in your head? Or does it mean replacing the transmission in your car?
Being seen as smart puts immense pressure on you to be perfect. Choosing a degree outside math or science is seen as a failure, and people may tell you that you are “wasted potential,” because of it.
The pressure upon the label “smart” causes stress and burnout. The constant need to prove yourself is draining, and all for what? To prove to others that you are worth a social label, or because being smart has become your perceived identity.
School systems are set up to make us believe our grades are not only the most important part of our lives, but the one thing that decides our entire future. Grades become a part of our identity, and in the process, academic validation does so, too.
When being smart has been a part of your identity for so long, you realize you’ve lost yourself along the way. It’s OK to have hobbies and do the things you love, even if they aren’t school-related or aren’t challenging your brain in ways you are used to.
Being smart should mean so much more than a mark on a slip of paper. People in university for engineering, college for hairstyling, and apprenticeships for mechanics are all smart, and society should begin to see it as such. They would not be successful in each other’s paths, and that does not make one smarter than the other.
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses in academics. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses when performing everyday tasks.
Why is it that school is this deciding factor of our significance in society? Just because I can read faster than you, and you can multiply integers faster than I, doesn’t mean either one of us should feel stupid.
The label “smart” not only puts unattainable pressure on some people, but can also place the weight of not being good enough.
Society as a whole needs to improve at not looking down upon others. Especially when it comes to struggling in school or making career decisions that might fall outside the norm. Everyone deserves to feel like they are enough, because they are.
You are worth more than the grades you receive, and you deserve to do whatever you are passionate about without judgment.
We should not look down on people because their vocabulary isn’t as large as ours, or because they can’t solve a problem set as quickly. Smart is an unnecessary label that causes a lot more harm than good.