Do our grades define who we are

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The Relationship F School Grades and Personal Life Definition
Introduction
Schools are important institutions where people learn life skills, career skills, and social skills. Schools are places where people are supposed to interact to develop interpersonal communication skills as they get imparted with relevant skills that would improve their career. As people share in the school community, they end up learning very pertinent life skills nonetheless. However, the core value of formal school education is to help in imparting career-related skills in the students. This is the major motivation for many people put a lot of focus in the school success, especially on the achievement of good grades for personal success in future employment fields. People, therefore, can define the value of their lives from school based on the type and value of grades that they get out of their learning materials. However, some students who have gone ahead to create very successful life ventures with poor grades or after dropping out of school puts a new twist on the value of school education. Many people, therefore, have been wondering if the success in getting good school grades is the sole determinant of a successful life. Debates have been raised that are a pro and against the grades in school as the source of life success. It would thus be important if an empirical research study is put in place to determine if the life success is pegged on one’s achievement of grades in school, or not.

Background of School Tests and Grades
Tests are structured response articles that students need to undertake under strict conditions to determine how much they can recall and replicate whet their teachers told them to do as a way of solving a given problem (McNeil 47). Tests, therefore, depend on the perception that teachers have towards a given concept, and how the student can understand and relate the concept to their situations. Tests can be terminal or progressive. The terminal tests are the ones undertaken at the end of a learning exercise (Black et al. 13-7). It helps in informing how much the learner can recall throughout the duration of the course. It is the one that normally marks the exit from a course, and thus defines the new frontiers and prospects of the students. Progressive evaluation can be spontaneous but is normally used towards the development of the students to prepare for the terminal tests.
Becoming successful person in life is a very important aspect of every individual in the society. People try to maximize and achieve the set goals in every activity that they undertake. According to McClelland three needs theory, people are motivated to work and realize goals based on three parameters including the need for achievement, the need for relationships and the need for power (Sheldon and Andre 482). This means that when people achieve goals in life in the way they believe fits their personality, they can be considered to be a success. Relating McClelland’s theory into the modern society, the need for success can be in the area of business prospects and entrepreneurship. The need for relationships can be regarding celebrities seeking to get to be as popular as possible and the need for power can be related to the call to political roles. It would be important to understand how the college grades have contributed to the success of people in these areas of achievement relationships and power.
College grades are important. According to Marte Jonelle of Washingtonpost, the value of grade that a student gets in the terminal evaluation especially in high school has a corresponding quality of later life. According to his post, there is a widening gap between the earning that college students may get as salary and what the high school drop outs may get. The reports indicate that college graduates would get better jobs compared to the high school dropouts, thus earning more money. It indicates that college graduates earned an average of 800000 dollars as the median salary in their active career lives, among those who graduates in the 1960 and 1964. When compared to the high school drop outs who earned an average of 300000 in the same period, it is worth noting that the differences in the level of education that arose from the grades the students scored in high school education are an indicative of how valuable the grades would become.
According to Mikhail Zinshteyn of theatlantic.com, households with top quarter incomes of at least $116,000 were headed by more than 50% of the 2014 college graduates. The same graduates who headed households with less than $35,000 only accounted for 10% of the graduates in the same year (Zinshteyn 1). The majority of university graduates, therefore, lead households with higher income levels, with only a few graduates leading households with low income. This is a different picture among the high school diploma holders. The majority of the high school diploma holders lead households with lower income levels, while a minority group is leading households with higher income levels.
Similar studies carried out recently show similar trends in the development of the income gap between then high school and the college students. According to Danielle Kurtzleben of usnews.com, the university graduate students saw a $6,700 increase in their salaries that rose up to $45,500 between the years 1965 and 2013. The rise in the salaries for the degree graduates has been sustained over the period as the demand for more college graduates increases over time. On the contrary, those with the high school diploma saw a dip in their salaries by $3,400 (Kurtzleben 1).
The report further indicated that the college graduates who are between the ages of 25-32 years old received a higher salary compared to the high school diploma holders. According to Kurtzleben, college graduates earn up to $17,500 higher that the high school diploma holders annually. This shows that to get more salaries, students need to put in more effort and much focus in their studies to receive better grades and continue their education beyond high school. In this regard, the development of grades is important in determining the type of life that the student would be living in future. Good grades are likely to give one a god life, better than poor grades (Kohn 38).
Marte further points out to the benefits of having good grades in school. In his report, he noted that many avenues are only opened through the good grades that a student may have. According to Marte, Colleges thoroughly look at grades before admitting anyone for higher studies. Moreover, the scholarship organizations that would be interested in funding the students’ further education also look at grades before awarding scholarship packages. Most importantly, Marte notes that employers who give out job opportunities also look at grades before giving one the employment opportunities. Therefore, it goes without saying that getting good grades is not an option, but the necessity to those who need to further their studies and get better salaries in future (Marte 1).
Michael French who was the director of the health economics at the University of Miami also voiced his views on the development of the relationships between school performance and the life earnings. According to French, the GPA is very important in the development of personal education and learning. He notes that the best-paid professionals cannot be college graduates with a diploma but the university degree graduates in medicine, law, engineering and high-end professional courses. According to French, it would be impossible for one to develop educational studies that may lead to such courses if one is not academically bright. Other courses that pay people good amounts of money like accounting, finance and auditing remain out of reach for the people who are not academically endowed. It is therefore to the students, the school and the parents to inculcate the spirit of hard work and the development of good grades in the terminal examination that would determine the value of life that students would live.
Understanding the Value Of Test Metrics
The development of good testing facilities for the terminal examinations is thus important for every state to ensure reliability and credibility. Moreover, the educational stakeholders must ensure that the tests that the students would take to determine the future earnings have relevance to the study materials and the modern society. The depth of the tests should be able to address the core areas that the learners would be accessed for the benefits of wholesome learning and testing. The test scores, grading, and presentation must be conducted in systems that are credible enough to show the true outcome of the test results (Frederiksen 30). Tests also need to be more assured of their level of severity and depth. The tests severity mean that they must address most of the learned course materials, and the depth means that they should be intuitive. Tests crafting, development, handling and use in the grading of the students should, therefore, improve the quality of the students learning processes. Finally, tests must be relevant in the society. It is upon the society to develop learning materials that depict the values of the variable that would be solved through the education system. If the tests confirm to the quality of the education system in place, they would be very important for the success of the students (Gibbs 4).
However, the gaining of knowledge confirmed through the development of the good grades should not be confused for wisdom. People go to school to sharpen their academic and knowledge capabilities. However, some students may not be fully endowed academically but are wise in their thoughts and actions (Steele 436). Such students should not be condemned into oblivion if they don’t manage to perform well in the test scores and the college educational needs. This shows that in as much as tests can be important; they should not be used as an avenue to which some people who cannot manage good grade are undervalued and looked down upon in the society. Research studies indicate that there are many people who did not make it to good grades but still make a significant life contribution and success.
According to huffingtonpost.com post, of 2013, it was indicated that students should not let grades define their worth. The post went ahead to clarify that students must work hard to get the good grades in their GPA as this would give them an entry level into the prestigious courses that would later pay them well. It noted that good grades as fine in giving people better opportunities, but they are not everything in life, the post indicates that students need to continue to reexamine their lives in different dimensions and make out for success even out of the poor grades they get in the learning systems.
Grades May Not Define Personality of Everybody
Sarah Scott of macleans.ca used the McLelland theory to note that the education grades are not important after all. In her report, she noted that all the people need in life are an achievement, relationships, and power. According to Sarah, many people have achieved such milestones without the overrated educational grades. According to Scott therefore, the success of an individual depend on the upbringing that the parents gave the child to focus on the development of the three life variable including relationships, power, and achievements. Similar sentiments were given out by Woo-Ming of crimsonnews.org. According to Woo-Ming, the presence of the academic grades of the academic certificate is incomplete in defining the different success capabilities of the person.
Woo-Ming notes that through the certificate, one cannot determine other people attributes like humor the person possess, the personality of the grade holder, and athletic ability of the individual. Moreover, Woo-Ming point out to there are possible work ethics and values that cannot be given out in the academic report cards (Woo-Ming 1). What Woo-Ming suggested in the post is that every person is uniquely endowed with skills and capabilities that they can exploit for success and self-definition. The post indicated that the success in life does not come from the grades alone, but from many other dynamic parts of life.
Woo-Ming further talks about the personal definition which he considers irrelevant to use the educational tests and grades. People can make use their talents and unique personalities to define themselves away from the educational achievements. Some people have made great personal success in politics, music, business and other sectors despite their low academic qualifications. Moss in 2016 underscores the same sentiments. According to Moss, the educations test scores are not fine if they lack other life dimensions like one’s hard work in any given activity, people skills, and interrelationships, and the level of personal creativity. Moreover, the tests do not show the level of one’s kindness, the leadership ability one possess and the level of openness in the society. Moss indicates that the amount of possible success factors that test scores never reveal about the individual are many, and cannot be used for the success development and personal definition. According to Moss and Woo-Ming, it is notable that tests only work to cause unnecessary high amounts of stress, but creates a sense of inferiority in the individual.
Jeff Kelly of listverse.com in 2013 enumerated top ten individuals who had made personal definitions and self-worth despite their poor capability in class. According to Kelly, John D. Rockefeller is a successful business person who dropped out of Shirk school at the younger age of 16 years. This shows that he did not have the college certifications but employed the college and university graduates in his Rockefeller companies. Also, Horace Greeley, the early nineteenth-century renowned journalist participated in the development of the Republican Party, which he later used to ascend to Congress despite dropping out of school at the age of fifteen years. Kelly further notes that despite the poor academic background that would lead to college or even university certification, Steve Jobs and Wozniak managed to cofound Apple.Inc Company that became the leading information technology company. Other great names like Winton Churchill, Henry Ford, William Shakespeare, and Abraham Lincoln are people who do not have strong academic credentials, yet are some of the most influential people on earth after self-definitions beyond the people with exemplary educational achievements.
Notably, successful people have defined themselves in great leadership positions, music, poetry, business moguls and many other areas better than the educated people. This possibly points out to the fact that grades cannot define an individual, but an individual is defined through the maximization of individual’s talents, opportunities and hard work in the society.
According to Hilary French, the top administrator at Central Newcastle High School, the school grades are important but cannot define the personality of an individual. According to French, the most important thing that people need to focus on is the need to install the spirit of hard work and not accepting failures among the students, but the ultimate success does not get defined from the academic prowess.
There are many other people who have made great success even in the music industry despite the poor academic backgrounds. This means that talent that a person may have overridden the educational qualification in any given field. It is the talent that people should work to nurture to develop self-definition and life success.
Conclusion
Education is important in the society and for the social developments of an individual. Getting good grades in the educational sectors are important in opening up one’s horizons, but are not a prerequisite of personal definition. A person can be defined by the talents and the opportunities that are available. However, some people have also used education to define themselves. Therefore, it is not possible to simply note that educating cannot define oneself or not, but that individual definition depends on that individual identification of their unique capabilities and maximizing on them. Those people who are good in education can go ahead and make the personal definition of education. On the other hand, those people who are good in education should make their use of their core skills and get good grades for the need to further their studies. Those who cannot make to good grades, therefore, should settle for any grade they can get but maximize the development of their talents in music, politics, and business or any other area that they can use to self-define. Self-definition is possible through getting good grades, but that is not the only way as there exist many other ways in which a person can carry out self-definition. Many people who have self-define themselves includes presents, like Abraham Lincoln, business moguls like Steve Jobs and artists like William Shakespeare.

Works Cited
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