Where it all began
From a young age when children start pre-school, teachers enforced upon us a timeline in which we are supposed to go to grade school, attend college, and then either continue professional school or get a job. We are taught that school is very important and that it is all about getting good grades and being the best.
The Asian “smartness” stigma
Being a South Asian student, I do know about and have experienced the stereotype that “Indians are very smart especially in math and science”. Ironically, I was really good at math. Not because I was Indian, but because I worked hard for it. Growing up I was always at the top of my class in elementary and middle school. I got straight A’s, had perfect attendance, and was on the principle’s list. This all changed from the moment I stepped foot in High School. I went to an all magnet school and quickly realized that I was surrounded by smart people. I started to feel the pressure of being South Asian, also of being a legacy, and constantly felt like I was being compared to the other Indians and their smartness. For some reason students just looked at me and believed I was super smart.
But what does being “smart” even mean? What determines if one is “smart” or not?
High school teachers and councilors emphasized that your GPA and SAT scores were the most important thing in order to get into college. “They also look at your involvement but your numbers are the most important”. After hearing that I thought, so basically my stats are going to determine if I go to college or not? If a student got straight A’s and had a 4.0 GPA as well as above average SAT scores they were considered “smart”. Unfortunately those who had a 3.0 and around average SAT scores were not considered “smart”.
I like to consider myself a figure that proves this ideology wrong
Numbers don’t define me
I have personally experienced and seen many cases where a student truly is smart but is not seen that way because of the way their stats (GPA, exam scores, etc) determine them. There are many factors that play a role in a student not receiving the grades or scores they deserve, such as test anxiety, not able to work well with others, or simply just not liking school.
I came to college as a Pre-Pharmacy and Biology major, but little did I know that was not for me. All the stem classes were based on exam grades. Having major test anxiety those classes did not go so well for me. I found myself studying super hard and thinking I knew the information but not getting the results that I wanted. At a point in time I considered myself stupid because I would score so low compared to the other students in my class. I switched majors and finally found what I was interested in. I suddenly started to due well not only on the exams but in the class overall. I thought to myself, how did I let poor exam scores and a bad grade determine I was stupid?
Is the tassel worth the hassle?
This brings up another topic that seems to be controversial when it comes to getting an education.
Kids from a young age are taught to go to college and THEN get their dream job. But why?
Does college even prep you for the outside world and your dream job (unless you’re a pre-health student)?
Why can’t you simply just find a job and follow their trainings in order to learn the techniques?
Students are paying thousands of dollars, taking out loans, and making sacrifices to get an education and a degree that sometimes does not necessarily benefit them in the long run. Colleges do not teach students about stocks, how to manage their taxes, how to efficiently save for retirement, when to buy a house or car, or how to manage their bills and pay for insurance. Students never have to apply the quadratic formula, know the cell theory or the chemical component of a protein to live a normal life.
So are we, students, attending college and getting these scores and grades that are supposed to determine how smart we are, just to step into this scary world unprepared?
Unruly Bodies 
I work with children as a tutor of sorts and I can really see how school is affecting them… one of the aspects of the school system that saddens me is how it’s really built for a class rather than a student. It’s more important that the majority of the class understands a subject/topic rather than every single student. If a student doesn’t understand, the class as a whole still must move on and a child falls further and further behind. Many of my students are the children of immigrant parents and I can see how much their parents invest in their education, wanting them to get into a good college and get a good job. They’re so little, it makes me sad sometimes that we live in a world where education takes precedence over creativity and happiness. Developing a work ethic is useful but I wish parents and students didn’t have to worry about their livelihoods. Nothing of this situation was intentionally malicious, it’s the situation itself that’s flawed I think.
Unfortunately, most white collar jobs require at least a Bachelor’s degree. However, it seems that many do not really care about what your major(s)/minor(s) is/are, so long as you have said degree. For example, my mom’s Bachelor degree major is Spanish, which she has never used for a single job. She might use her bilingual skills to interact with people, especially in a retail environment, but it has never had any correlation to her jobs. The same goes for my dad, whose Bachelor’s degree is in Political Science. Learning this truth about jobs and college majors has both discouraged and encouraged me when thinking about my future careers. As long as a have a Bachelor’s degree, I have a pretty wide variety of options. I wish that this were not the case, but I cannot say that I see it changing anytime soon. I’m sorry about the stereotyping that you have encountered; all stereotyping is harmful, even the “good” kinds.
I found this post to be really interesting. We are taught for so long that there is a prescribed path to having a “good job” and making “good money”. When a person decides to deviate from that path they are seen as a slacker, stupid, or naive. The constant pressure from society, the education system, the business world, and even your own family can be enough to push someone down a path that seems like a good idea in theory, but is more based on the wants of others instead of the needs of the person actually going through it. If there is one thing that I have learned throughout college is that eventually you have to choose your own path. The only person living your life is you so if you do everything in order to appease someone else, you’ll never truly be happy. I started as a biology major because my mom thought it was a good idea, and now that I’m actually doing it, I constantly wonder if this is what I really want or was this the path that I was pushed into choosing. Tests have always been a struggle for me and I have always wondered if it was me or is it the mindset of the test that focuses on topics that I did not personally find meaningful or important. Thank you for bringing this up! I really enjoyed your perspective .
Your blog has some really great points about going to college and securing your dream job. With my children, I pushed for higher education because I wanted them to have a better life. I saw college as a path toward upward mobility. I encountered struggles and sacrificed in order for them to have access to greater opportunities.
Once they graduated I thought for sure, they would be able to land their dream job. Unfortunately, that was not the case with two of my daughters. My oldest daughter after graduating from college decided to join a missionary. My middle daughter was able to secure a great job within her major. My youngest daughter, a 2010 graduate is still searching for her dream job while paying off her outstanding student loan debts. My daughters are thankful for their degrees but not the debt they incurred while attending college.
I very much agree with you on the point that we should not be forcing education on everyone so young. I know someone whose parents are forcing them to remain in school and they not even financially supporting him. While trying to maintain those C’s needed to get degrees he is also suffering thought long hours at a minimum wage job trying to pay for it when he does not even want to be in school. I enjoyed school. I came into college as a math major. So I can agree with your sentiments I found out it was not for me, but simply because I did not enjoy it. I have always excelled on exams. I find myself still defining part of who I am possibly part of my worth by the numbers. I have always been smart I was valedictorian and here I also feel lost in a sea of other smart people. But my real realization changed when I got my grades back from Study Abroad: I got two Bs. These were the first two Bs I gotten since 7th grade, a 4.0 prior and all through high school. I am now slowly understanding grades are worth very little and school is not much more than a capitalistic scam that we find necessary.
Great post! Societally, we are taught that there is a definite need for the tassel, but apprenticeships and trade school exists! But those people that don’t go to college are seen as lesser or not as smart for sure. There’s a famous quote by Albert Einstein that said “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” I feel like this quote applies here heavily, especially when it comes to non-higher education learning.