A Real Education

Michael Zalvin

Professor Siggy

EN101

12/6/10

English Final Paper

Prologue:

Students obsess over getting good grades. From early education students are told that they go to school for a letter grade or percentage rather than to actually get something out of the course. They that if they are getting the good grade, then they are succeeding and doing it right. The desire that the students have to get the good grade can sometimes hinder progress, because they will only look at what’s ahead and miss out on all of the details along the way. This style of education forces students to believe that the material that is important is the material that they are going to be tested/graded on. They study the material through the method of memorization, a method that allows the student to know and understand the course material for a short period of time (just long enough to take an exam) and once the student feels they are no longer in need of the information; they discard of it and forget about it. They are not truly learning or gaining knowledge, their understanding is only temporary.

A student is a person that strives to gain not only scholastic knowledge, but to gain life knowledge as well. These people explore from themselves and discover things on their own. A successful student will go to class for the sole purpose of becoming more knowledgeable and does not rely on a grade to tell them that they are learning correctly. They will not take any precautions when they approach learning. They’ll jump in feet first without hesitation, and they are willing to step outside of their comfort zone. The successful student understands that they will not know everything, that they will be confused even completely lost at times but knows that in the end, it will all come together. Being a successful student is about the learning experience, becoming more knowledgeable and actually taking something out of the course, not about what grade they’ll receive in the end. The unsuccessful student approaches the learning system very cautiously, playing it safe and takes little to no risks. Being an unsuccessful student does not mean that the student has bad grades, in fact the unsuccessful student may possibly have straight A’s. So if the student is getting the good grades, why are they considered unsuccessful? The unsuccessful student is unsuccessful because they do not take anything out of the course, they are in it for the grade and once there is no more need for the information is discarded and no longer used. This kind of student does not gain any life knowledge out of what they do. In the education system there aren’t just successful and unsuccessful students but successful and unsuccessful classrooms. A successful