Complete this sentence: “In school I learned that the secret of success is __________.” What does your composite essay say about success? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, p.342-3).
Sometimes
it helps in discussing a topic—like scholastic success—to address
its opposite—here, scholastic mediocrity and even failure. There
are several contributors to mediocrity. First, the student sees no
great value in education. Second a failing student lacks
self-confidence that he is up to the task, and more troubling, may
have a profound sense of unworthiness. A failing student does not
see education as an exciting adventure but rather intolerably boring.
Because of the factors just mentioned, the failing students
exercises no persistence in learning essential fundamentals. Let us
turn the focus off the student and towards the instructors, teachers,
or coaches. We must look full-on at an unpleasant fact; if the
instructor doesn't like a student and evaluates him as
least-favorite, then this significantly impacts a student's ability
to succeed. A related consideration, in most any subject area there
are “schools of thought.” Instructors have biases regarding them
(not to mention educationally unrelated prejudices). There are in
almost all fields accepted norms. If a student criticizes them or
propounds other options, despite nods to academic freedom, professors
can react negatively—in human nature objectivity and subjectivity
are inescapably blended. The last consideration in academic failure
is intelligence. I put it last because it is so difficult to define.
Intelligence is also a blend of objectivity and subjectivity—of
logic, insight, and creativity all related to perception and greatly
influenced by experience. Mother told me that when I was a toddler,
I once asked for a banana. She reached in the refrigerator and
brought out a brown one. I said, “But mother, I want one with
daylight on it.” Obviously a toddler doesn't have the IQ of an
adult. So what about my comment did mother find memorable? Was it
plain stupid, silly, insightful, creative, or intelligent? Intelligence is
hard to define and identify, so its relationship to academic success
is uncertain.
Really,
what applies to formal education applies to learning almost any
task—say that of learning to ride a bike. To succeed the student
must (1) find great value in bike riding, (2) have almost a blind
self-confidence coupled with a reliable sense of worthiness, (3) see
the task as an exciting adventure, (4) maintain persistence in
learning, (5) have a coach that likes the student and enjoys doing
training, (5) does not repel the coach with criticism perceived as
unfair or bizarre, (6) displays required intelligence—whatever that
is. Whether on a street corner learning to ride a bike or
matriculating at Harvard, these characteristics serve one well.
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