Personal Philosophy

    "I don't believe the most intelligent people are the ones who get the best grades, got into the best schools, or made the most money" - Ben Stein. Growing up, I though that every homework assignment, test, quiz, and essay reflected my intelligence. I would look at the grade the person to my right received, and then I reflected on my own score. I would then suddenly feel defeated because I though it was the end of the world that I got an F on an assignment. I remember begging and crying to my 6th grade social studies teacher to let me retake an assignment I failed, she replied, " Tatevik, it's just one number. School is not all about grades." Her words provided no  consolation; instead, I developed a bitter hatred toward her. However, as time passed and I grew older and more understanding, my anger subsided, but her words remained immersed in my mind.

    The educational system is now now dawned to be a competition of who can get the highest score, instead of who learned the most from the process. More students that I have had the privilege to meet are feeling the same stress I brought upon myself in the 6th grade, because now in high school, grades and test scores seem to decide whether or not you will get into a good college. It is as if the printed figures of numbers and letters on the transcript lying in front of the college administration reflect who we actually are as people. But does it really? We are more than just people who are defined by the numbers listed underneath underneath our names, we all come from different backgrounds and have different work ethics that may work for one person, but not another, and we never take the time to realize that. So does that make you any less intelligent? Of course not. 

    We should take it upon ourselves as students or just as common citizens, to back up whenever we seem to feel discouraged by a red score beside our name, and reflect: Did I actually learn something throughout this whole process? Was this my best effort? What could I do better? Who can I see to help me if I ever find myself stuck again? Because you see, it is not the score that shows us how intelligent we are, it is what we can take from this process to apply it to another time and do better. 

    We all have special talents, some better than others, and that is what makes us intelligent in a field many other do not know how to do. We come to think that an intelligent person has A's, a 2400 on their SAT, and a 36 on their ACT. I have met students with low grade point averages, who by my astonishment were incredibly creative and possessed the ability to acquire and apply knowledge much faster than myself.

    I have grown as person to develop an attitude to where if I fail, I pick myself back up, and carry on. One bump in the road should not mark the end of all the hard work I have put in to become the person I am now, and should certainly not end anybody else's hard work and dedication in school as well. Realizing our mistakes makes us all the more intelligent than the person who received a high score. Applying what we know and and have studied into our everyday life is intelligence. Figuring stuff out on your own, rather than on books is intelligence. We are all smart, but we are smart in our own ways, and no one has the right to take that from us, not even a numerical figure. The true value of an education lies in ts ability to nurture one's ability to reason and perceive, not just reproduce an answer.