Not all High Achievers have High Ability

Dhananjay Joshi
Nov 2 · 2 min read
[Source: https://www.collegedekho.com/news/indian-school-students-take-more-extra-classes-than-other-countries-15037/]

Teenage years are turbulent. From a teenager’s point, parents and teachers “cunningly collaborate” to make it even more tumultuous. All for that much loathed word called ‘marks’. The blow to the soul of a teenager is not softened even if the ‘m-word’ is replaced with softer options like ‘scores’ and ‘grades’.

There is a strange dichotomy here. While the ‘education system’ rewards you for compliance, the real world rewards you for how disruptive your ideas could be. In a way ‘creative thinkers’ are rewarded than ‘high academic achievers’.

When my children were growing up, we as parents had a choice to make. Was it going to be fine if my children were not ‘high achievers’, but were of ‘high ability’?

It is important for us as parents to understand the difference between high achievers and high ability in the academic context.

In ‘wholesome’ education systems, the transition from low order thinking to higher order thinking could lead to the development of ‘ability’ in a child.

Typically, the transition could follow a path illustrated here, with simple ‘recall from memory’ considered the lowest order thinking. The final proof of high ability would be, if the child is able to create something from the knowledge acquired. The creation could be a simple robot, moulding a clay pot, making a website, writing a business plan, composing a song, making a video, making a drip irrigation system etc.

On the other hand, ‘high achievers’ are programmed to perform. Sure, some of them are high ability as well, but importantly, they have mastered the art of ‘cracking exams’. One only needs to check what’s going on in the innumerable entrance exam coaching classes, to confirm what we are dealing with.

In the table below, I have tried to put together some characteristics of each. You as the parent need to decide.

Do you want your child to be much more than the sum total of their marks?

Dhananjay Joshi

Written by

Ex-IB Diploma Programme Co-ordinator, Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Educational Consultant, Indic Values Storyteller

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