How the education system actually failed us
When I was a young, naive elementary schooler, I believed the school system was perfect. It was only me who wasn’t. I had to try as hard as I could to be the perfect student for this perfect system.
When I was in middle school, the myth of the perfection of school was broken in the strangest of ways. I happened to perform badly on a small, simple grammar quiz in my English class. I think my score was 77 percent, or around that number. Not only was it the worst grade I had ever received in English (my best subject), it was also the worst grade I had received EVER in my entire academic career up until that point. I went completely berserk. I locked myself in the school bathroom after class was over and cried. I went to talk to my teacher and cried. It felt like the end of the world. My worst nightmare had come true — I had received less than 80 percent on an assessment! Now my grade would surely tank to reflect my atrocious failure. Right?
But, of course, it didn’t. That was one tiny quiz and I received an A on every other assignment and test. So when I logged onto the online grading portal to view my grade after the quiz of horror had been entered into the gradebook, I still had an A in the class. Once I saw that, I should’ve been happy. Or at least relieved. But I wasn’t. I was disgusted. In that moment, my ferocious, unquestioning belief in…
