For some reason, I’ve been thinking a lot today about the difference between going to school for the sole purpose of getting good grades versus actually gaining a wealth of knowledge. There’s no doubt that throughout my time at Neumont, I’ve learned more than I ever could have managed to do on my own, and I’m sure that this is true for anyone else that has gone through the school’s curriculum. However, I’ve noticed that there are some people that seem to care more about the grade they are awarded at the end of the quarter than actually having applicable real-world knowledge in our field.
Now, I have to admit that I was like this in high school. Anyone that knew me then knows that I thought it was a huge waste of time. I wasn’t gaining any useful knowledge in anything that I was interested in. There were very few times I was genuinely interested in my classes, but I still felt like all I was doing was serving my time just like everyone else. At the same time, though, I still felt a strong need to get good grades. I was number 1 in my class and I had to keep it that way. I can’t really explain it. Once I had my 4.0 I couldn’t let it go.
Maybe it was after I accomplished my goal of a 4.0 high school transcript that I realized how pointless it was. Did it necessarily mean I was smarter? Not really. I guess it meant that I put in more work than other people, but other than that I didn’t really feel like I had gained anything by putting in that extra effort. There were plenty of smarter people than me in my class, and there are tons upon tons of more talented high school graduates out there with less than a 4.0 on their transcript.
I guess my point is that now, I know better. Now, when it really counts, I’m not entirely concerned with my GPA. I mean, I don’t want to fail, and it still hurts a bit when I see B’s on my college transcript, but I know that what I’ve learned in this past year and a half is much more valuable to me than any letter grade.
The reason I bring this up is because I was asked an interesting question tonight by one of my roommates. I was mentioning how pointless this one homework assignment was, and he asked “Wouldn’t you rather have a bunch of easy pointless questions than a bunch of hard ones?” Actually, no. I really would rather spend my time figuring out 10 interesting hard problems than sit here doing 10 boring pointless ones, especially if I’m not learning anything from the easy ones.
Either way, even if I had interesting homework to do right now, I guess I would still be procrastinating.
-Ryan.
edit; I like the way my roommate Scott put it just now: “I’m not here to get good grades, necessarily. I’m here to learn!” I completely agree.