The Dweeb Shall Inherit the Earth
I just got home from eighth grade promotion, and boy, do I feel sorry for the slackers. There was a time when I clung to my GPA as my only tangible indicator of self-worth. I got lots of As! That meant I was smart! It's good to be smart! Actually, it only meant that to a certain extent, as grades award diligence as much as they do intelligence. But it's good to be diligent! Grades also award certain innate abilities that some of us are lucky enough to inherit. It's good to have innate abilities that produce good grades! Yes, all of those things are good, useful, and excellent predictors of future academic success and, just maybe, success in the workplace. And in my youth, especially at my high school, these were things that were, for the most part, under-recognized. I went to a school that was nuts about sports, that had a "coach culture" that actually prevented me, with the highest GPA in the school, from belonging to the Honor Society because I hadn't ...