Who Said Grades Are Not Important?

With the graduation season fast approaching, we can’t help but think of the thousands more joining the competition for jobs. These add to the already incalculable competitors that escalate in number year after year. While many of us would rather blame the government for insufficient job opportunities, it may be helpful to look at this problem from another perspective: the quality of graduates.
It is a fact that job hunting is not as easy as some career seminars and workshops make us believe. But difficulty in job hunting is not because of poor employment chances only. Many HR practitioners will agree that grades do reflect a person’s diligence and responsibility. So poor grades do influence one’s potential to be hired.

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Very unfortunately, not many students realize this sooner. Often, regrets come flooding in when school days are over, and the dispelling grades are there for good, for life. Grades, literally, are more permanent than marriages. Some people shift from a spouse to another, but a “meek” grade earned during the first semester way many years back is there clinging in the transcript even long after all the spouses have left.
You can compose many interesting and convincing versions of alibis to save face, but recruitment officers (who are interested more in your transcript than in the most enticing plate of paella) know for heaven’s sake when yours is no more than just another myth.

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I see three important facets of this issue. The most apparent, of course, is the student’s perspective. I teach. And I would say that many students are deceived by the belief that securing a barely passing grade is just as good as getting 90s. It may be true for a moment. A 75 can indeed get us promoted to a next higher class, can’t it? But striding up to a next class isn’t all that we are up to, is it? We study to get a good job someday. And good jobs require not only grades. They require good grades.

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A second important facet is that of teachers. Educators’ role does not comprise in teaching. (This is why even the term “teacher” is reductive of the profession’s whole picture.) Teachers must facilitate learning. Eloquence, therefore, may not necessarily mean proficiency. A professor may impress a class with his competency in speaking. But while articulacy is an important factor in teacher-effectiveness, it is not the sole tool to truly facilitate learning.
Learning and motivation are Siamese twins. Students learn well when they are motivated well. And the chief motivational figure in a classroom should be the teacher. This is why I don’t agree with the traditional procedure that the Motivation part of a lesson plan should come at the onset. It is a part that should be inherent in all parts of each lesson. To make students interested in the lesson is one thing. But to keep them interested is yet another. And in most cases, the latter is the task that demands more skills on the part of the teacher.

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A third perspective is the parents’. Teachers are not meant to be parents’ replacements. Instead, the home and the school should be good partners in the endeavor to bring out the best in our kids. Neither can do it alone effectively.
But this is true in concept, at least. In the real world, many parents are oblivious (or negligent) of their educational function. The motivational role that the teacher plays in the classroom ends when a child leaves the campus. As he arrives home, the parents’ turn starts. There is much that they can do to perk up their kids’ academic performance, aside from buying trendy classroom paraphernalia or giving exorbitant rewards. When did you last follow up your kid’s grades? When did you last fully guide him in completing a project? When did you last listen to his love stories? When did you last encourage him to outperform himself?
With today’s growing career opportunities, many parents become preoccupied with thoughts of earning for their children, but have forgotten to truly spend some time with the children.

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So whoever said that grades are not important? He must be kidding.