The ABC&D of Education

There is a season and important reason for examinations in schools and colleges. Examinations are designed to reward those that accurately restate what is taught during the term and aligns students in a pecking order of merit that recognizes those who took keen interest and those who had other interests. The “A” student is the most intelligent in this regard and is considered academically brilliant. The “A” student has the gift of recital and can be trusted to commit knowledge to memory. The A student typically qualifies to be an academician entrusted with protection and flawless transfer of knowledge and culture past down from one generation to the next and building upon it gradually, protectively and laboriously by degree.

The B students are certainly astute and have attained the discipline of method and science to an above average degree. Be students strive for perfection. Their gifting enables them to operate in an imperfect world. Their ethics and ethos set them apart as professionals and masters of a discipline. Their technical intelligence will enable them to establish careers in employment and rise to the level of managers of organizations. These are your lawyers, accountants, doctors and engineers who are trusted with expertise, excellence, efficiency and effectiveness.

If you look down upon the “C” grade, you forget that it is the democratic majority. Examiners plan the bell curve such that this group in good company. This group fails as many times as they pass a test. While they are not gifted academicians, but they are willing to try courageous and persistent. While trial and error may seem like guesswork to some, it is the key to survival in life and very often the unction to success. This group has many ideas. their challenge is to exploit them. The creative intelligence of this group makes up the bulk of our entrepreneurs, businessmen and self-employed persons who could not find a job. This group works out its own salvation in the business of life. The fact that an idea has failed once does not mean it will fail next time. Their creative intelligence enables them to succeed with ideas dismissed on paper by the A and the Bs.

The belief that D students only do enough to obtain the highest grade for the least amount of effort is misplaced. While they are considered naughty, cheeky or lazy academic programs do very little to measure their unique gifting. This group exhibits a vast range of kinesthetics energy in non-classroom activities. Their high levels of social intelligence enable them to engage as politicians, leaders, musicians, athletes, artists and fashion designers. D students rely on their natural gifting to succeed in life. Nonetheless, if “A” students were measured for social intelligence, they may not achieve little more than a “D” plain.

So where are we going with this argument? My point is this that God forsakes no one. While education programs measure academic intelligence there are other intelligences that make for success in life. Perhaps education would better serve us if we celebrated all the giftings it exposes rather than the grades it awards. The B student takes his children for tuitions from the A student, and everyone eats lunch at the C students’ restaurant who relies on the D student for popular entertainment. The A student studies the C student to establish industry trends while all of them are raving fans of highly paid football players who hardly made the D grade in school. Education helps everyone find a place in a working society. So, lets respect all our graduates and empower everyone to contribute to the wellness of humanity.