Life as a grade-aholic!

Pursue excellence – Success will follow!

When I first heard this quote in the movie 3 idiots, I was truly inspired because it was a simple rule to live by. Chasing excellence in whatever we do and then leaving the rest to God will surely give us success. It is guaranteed. But the question is are the students of today really pursuing excellence? Are the students of today really following their true passion or are they following the grading system laid out by this educational system?

When the teacher tells us to open the book, have we ever thought that we will learn something new? Have we ever thought that this will increase our knowledge and make us a little better person than we were yesterday? I’m sure most of us don’t do that.  When we go to the class, we don’t think that we will learn something exciting today but we think of strategies and ways to understand the concept through rote-learning so that it can stay in our heads till the exams only. There is no guarantee of whether it stays there after exam or not. We have never thought of learning beyond school. I agree that calculus might not help you when you will be living a life you have dreamt of; but why not learn things with more interest in learning rather than achieving higher grades.

We all are going through this system and we are very well aware of what happens in a class room. A person who gets A+ in a subject automatically becomes the teacher’s favorite. A classroom is more of a race competition than a learning space. We don’t learn as much as we worry about our grades.

This system, if ever changed, will take a long time to change but why don’t we try to bring a little change within ourselves by practically following this quote. After we finish our academic studies, we will have 40 or so years left to live a life we have been struggling for; then why not try to enjoy what we learn instead of trying to be a gradeaholic. Learn for the sake of gaining knowledge – not because you have to but because you want to. So be the fourth idiot and follow the rule!

I would like to end it with a quote from 3 idiots:

 Today my respect for that idiot shot up. Most of us went to college just for a degree. No degree meant no plum job, no pretty wife, no credit card, no social status. But none of this mattered to him, he was in college for the joy of learning, he never cared if he was first or last.

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