FREE ESSAY ON EMPAHSIZING ACHIEVEMENT

EMPAHSIZING ACHIEVEMENT

Today, in all schools alike, there is an emphasis placed on student leadership, success,
and achievement. Children are repeatedly told from elementary school through college,
that with hard work and dedication anything is possible and they have the potential for
greatness. This notion, in and of itself is not potentially harmful to a child, however,
when greatness is defined in terms of power and money, a warped view of the important
factors in life is created. Not every person desires to be a leader just as not every
person should be a leader. The concept of success and achievement poses a similar
predicament. Not every child is destined to be a doctor or lawyer when they grow up nor
should every child become one simply for the prestige that it offers. Every position in
society, from the custodian to the research scientist, plays an equally important
function in society. Besides placing emphasis on high achievement, many schools have
adopted the practice of increasing children's self esteem. While it is important to help
children embody a positive self-image, esteem is something that ought to be developed
through achievement rather than praise. 
Recently, schools have done away with choosing first place winners and replaced it with
an emphasis on the value of participation. In school sponsored sports, to ensure that
every student has the opportunity to participate freshmen teams have been created and
most schools have regulations to monitor the playing time of each athlete. Some may argue
that this will help to increase student's self-confidence under the premise that every
student should be made to feel like number one. However, this will lower the standards of
expectation and eliminate the competitive drive to be the best. Why would one athlete
work hard when other members on the team are not and still given playing time? When this
situation is present, the motivating factor of being the best is eliminated and student
athletes will work for the same level of guaranteed recognition where every person is
number one because they tried. 
A similar situation is present with academics and the concept of homework or "busy work".
A number of teachers at the middle school and high school level will assign work simply
for the sake of having something for students to turn in. Most homework is intended to
serve as reinforcement for what it taught in class. However, if the assignment is graded
on the basis of whether or not the student completed the assignment rather than answering
the problems correctly, the reinforcement is useless. If a student is given credit
despite their incorrect answers, then the only thing being reinforced are the incorrect
assumptions that student has made. An example of this is any assignment that is collected
and graded not on the content or correctness of the student's answers, rather on whether
it appears as though the student put for an effort to attempt the homework and complete
the assignment. Under this premise, there is no sufficient reason for a student to put
forth the time and effort needed to complete the assignment properly. Why would one
student invest the extra time to work through a challenging math problem when they will
receive the same amount of credit as another student who spent little time and answered
the problem incorrectly? The truth of the matter is that most students will not. 
Some people may displace the blame arguing that it is the problem of the times or that it
is one of the many examples of the laziness of the generation. All people entered this
world in the same manner regardless of what generation, it is the way people have been
conditioned and the way in which they learn that teaches them values and what is the
highest good. If children are conditioned to believe that the highest good is success and
achievement then it comes as no surprise that people will take the simplest and most
leisurely path to achieve that. This attitude is very prevalent in schools that offer
advanced placement courses. A number of students at the high school level will take these
courses simply because they are advanced and offer more prestige. As a result of this
attitude, many advanced placement or accelerated courses have been diluted to a simpler
level that guarantees success not for the advanced few rather for the larger mass of
students who want to be advanced for the prestige that it offers. This way more students
feel as though they are successful and talented individuals. 
Addressing the issue from this perspective is to place the teachers and educators as a
scapegoat for the greater problem. Education is not the sole influencing factor in a
child's life. Parents, other social institutions, and the media are just as influential
if not more than the schools. However, taking the education system as an example
exemplifies the issue as hand. When students are taught that success over happiness is
the highest good then that student will take whatever measures necessary to achieve that.
As a result, many students embody a false sense of achievement at all levels. When the
student that always got an A in school because they put forth an effort applies for their
first job, they may experience a difficult time performing well in a work environment
where final results and not the effort invested is the most important factor.
Furthermore, that same student may realize that an A in high school advanced placement
biology does not ensure admission into Harvard medical school and success as a surgeon.
The implications of these situations would be devastating to the individual that was told
from kindergarten on, that they were a leader and capable of achieving anything. In
closing, it is important that schools and parents alike aid children in achieving the
success that they, as an individual are capable of, developing a positive self-image, and
discovering that success is measured in terms of happiness rather than prestige.