I understand what you’re saying and I agree that much of the fault lies with those who ‘programmed’ you.

But think about this scenario with regards to the value of learning.

You receive good grades in your area of study, but don’t really learn much.

You find a great job and are hired by the company based on your grades and the material you studied.

You are unable to perform because you didn’t really learn the material.

Whether large or small, companies don’t employ people who don’t produce, no matter how hard they try, so you are fired for non-performance.

The pressures you face are real and many companies and managers are hung up on grades, so students scramble for good grades ignoring the long term consequences.

I just wish there was a fast fix for this mess, but it was decades forming and isn’t going to go away in a day.

One thing you can do is raise your kids differently. Fight for tougher teachers and better learning. Take yours and your classmates experience and use it as a springboard to change the system so your daughter or son won’t be writing something similar a couple of decades from now.

I realize that this type of thinking is actually blocking me from success, but if you would have told me that a few semesters ago that my best effort would still lead me to poor grades, I would have just taken that as a challenge to prove you wrong. While I do care about learning the information in a course, I still cannot shake the fear of a poor grade, even if I have learned a lot.

As in any other line of work teachers and professors range from brilliant to terrible, but, as my niece figured out, good or bad it was her responsibility to learn.

It’s the same in the workforce. Managers have the same skill range as teachers, so it’s up to individuals to perform, whether ‘because of’ or ‘in spite of’.

However, expecting that from either students or workers is unrealistic. I characterize it this way, 10% will succeed in spite of every barrier, 3% are what I call destroyers because they enjoy it and 87% will work to the level of their teacher/manager/leader/inspiration—whatever you want to call it.

I also believe that we make our own ruts. Every society has various definitions of success and people jump through whatever hoops necessary to achieve the version that they choose.

As to boxes, I don’t believe that anybody ever goes outside their box—even Steve Jobs—but they can enlarge them constantly.

I think the issue of entitlement to good grades is definitely important, but I also think there’s another issue that plays off this: the rut students today are in of producing what they are supposed to produce. I feel like students today are so worried about getting the grade, that they often pass up the chance to take a risk and say something off the beaten path. Of course, there are certainly lots of students who ARE thinking outside the box a little, but there are way more who are trying desperately to figure out what the professor wants and they regurgitate it down on 8 or 10 pages of paper.

Thing is, I’m sure professors hate this. I’m sure it makes their job rather boring and they’d love it if someone would take a risk and say something bold. But, you circle back to the issue of what students see as the ticket. Is it creativity and thinking of new ways to look at a problem, or is it taking the easy way, getting the grade, the GPA and the job?

That’s a whole separate issue, but I think it’s important.

I’d also love to hear what your kids think of their classmates who believe that showing up deserves an A and don’t understand why their teachers think that quality has value.

Gee, they are in college now doing just fine. They don’t always get great grades, but they sure don’t complain when they don’t. They know when they’ve performed well and when they haven’t.

Yes, effort is important. But it has to be the right effort. I appreciate that a lot of kids do try hard, and I know how tough it is for a lot of them these days. Especially if you have to work and also take classes. But knowing that your effort alone isn’t the point, that learning the material and being able to respond intelligently to it is the point, that’s important, too.