0:16 I was excited to learn about all these
0:20 new electives being offered I love so
0:23 many subjects so it was hard to narrow
0:25 down which ones to take but eventually
0:28 when I was finally done picking my
0:30 classes I compared to my schedule with
0:33 my friends just to see if they had any
0:36 classes with me then one of my friends
0:39 said yeah I love English but I didn't
0:41 take English literature this year
0:44 because I suck at it and asked her well
0:47 why do you suck at English and she
0:51 replied well I only got a 70 in the
0:54 class last year and at first I thought
0:57 fair enough but then later I realized
1:00 whether you suck at a subject or not
1:03 shouldn't the point of school be about
1:05 fostering our interest and becoming
1:08 better at something so why does getting
1:13 a bad mark limit our learning
1:15 unfortunately the reality for many
1:18 students is they don't take certain
1:20 classes for fear it would bring down
1:22 their academic average and this is a big
1:25 deal when students compromise their own
1:28 learning just to get their numbers on
1:31 their report cards now you might be
1:34 thinking well that's the students own
1:37 fault anyways but why do so many of them
1:39 care about grace rather than learning
1:42 could it be that school is focusing on
1:46 the wrong thing it seems like schools
1:50 sole preoccupation is to determine who
1:53 can follow the curriculum the best we as
1:55 young people are taught to memorize
1:58 information found in a textbook only to
2:01 regurgitate it on to next week's test
2:04 paper before forgetting all about it oh
2:06 you don't need to know that for the test
2:09 or that's way beyond the curriculum are
2:12 usually some teachers responses to
2:15 an insightful question or an original
2:18 comment that Aston has made I feel like
2:21 school no longer inspires the minds of
2:24 the next generation instead researchers
2:26 at the College of William and Mary
2:29 showed that the creativity among
2:32 students is on the decline an increased
2:34 number of students merely learned a
2:38 minimum just to get the desired grade we
2:42 asked hey what's on the quiz so we can
2:44 study just that and if something is not
2:47 for marks or not on a test then we're
2:51 reluctant to do the work assigned now is
2:55 this because students are lazy why do we
3:00 seem so mark obsessed well it's because
3:03 a number means so much to us nowadays
3:05 because we feel like those numbers
3:08 determine our futures so we value
3:11 getting a good mark as more important
3:13 than learning itself but what other
3:14 choices do we have
3:17 it's not like we really have a say in
3:19 this we are told day after day that
3:21 education is the key to a successful
3:24 life and that we need good marks in
3:27 order to have a respectable job or good
3:29 income sure some people tell us that
3:32 marks don't define us and that were more
3:34 than just so great but it never feels
3:39 that way many institutions and learning
3:41 programs solely look at the marks on a
3:43 transcript making students feel like
3:45 their future is determined by that
3:49 simple piece of paper so even though
3:51 some students might be passionate about
3:53 their learning or have an inventive mind
3:57 if they underperform on those exams then
3:59 these organizations will refuse to
4:02 consider them innovation will stagnate
4:05 if this current ideology of education is
4:08 followed because we kill our children's
4:12 creativity curiosity and desire to learn
4:15 the education system makes it easy for
4:17 them to just do what they're being told
4:21 by high school most of us students we
4:23 will stop asking questions and we will
4:24 roll our eyes
4:29 add a few hoodoo and in the midst of all
4:32 of this we have developed another
4:36 problem we somehow adopted this false
4:38 perspective that those who have good
4:41 marks must be better and smarter than
4:43 those who do not now those that have
4:45 trouble following one way of learning
4:48 have to face a stigma because in our
4:50 society students with lower grades are
4:54 considered as less intelligent and this
4:56 lowers the self-esteem but often times
4:57 it just means they might learn
5:00 differently and they are smart in their
5:03 own way or they could be going through a
5:05 personal issue that consequently affects
5:07 their marks we shouldn't be so quick to
5:12 judge them personally I have always been
5:14 a straight-a student throughout high
5:16 school most of my marks are in the mid
5:19 to high 90s and when I tell people that
5:22 I have almost failed grade two and three
5:25 and only God sees an elementary school
5:26 no one believes me
5:29 they say oh you seem smart so how could
5:30 she have possibly struggled an
5:34 elementary school well the truth is I
5:36 almost failed those couple of grades
5:38 because those were the years when I
5:40 first immigrated Canada and at that time
5:44 I didn't know English or French a space
5:45 with a lot of language and social
5:48 barriers I had horrible grades not
5:50 necessarily because I wasn't intelligent
5:53 or I was just lazy at school no I
5:56 honestly couldn't understand the words
5:58 that my teachers were even saying let
6:01 alone understanding the homework I can
6:03 communicate with my classmates because
6:06 of this language barrier and from being
6:09 faced with racial stereotypes on a daily
6:11 basis to being very secure due to my
6:16 Inessa T my accent at that time or even
6:17 like the food that I brought from home
6:20 because it's no different no wonder I
6:22 had difficulty learning in school I was
6:26 so concerned about fitting in as a
6:29 minority thankfully I eventually
6:31 overcame the problems that came with
6:34 immigration but to this day nothing
6:36 frustrates me more than when students
6:37 with higher grades think that they're bad
6:38 bad
6:40 and others simply because they have
6:42 better marks or when teachers there to
6:45 view some of their students as less
6:47 capable just because of their
6:49 performance at school sure some people
6:52 might not be naturally talented and
6:54 subjects such as algebra but does that
6:56 honestly mean that they're less smart
7:00 and why can't we also see that mental
7:03 illnesses bullying financial security
7:06 family issues and other factors do limit
7:10 some people's ability to do well at
7:11 school now does that mean that they
7:15 don't have the potential to succeed of
7:20 course not so numbers don't tell you
7:23 everything and the problem with our
7:25 current education system right now
7:30 is that we have a one-size-fits-all kind
7:32 of deal but we know that students have
7:35 different needs strengths passions no
7:38 two brains are the same and just like
7:41 Richard Williams said if a doctor was to
7:44 prescribe the same exact medicine to all
7:47 of his students it would be a disaster
7:49 right because so many of their patients
7:51 would get sick yet when it comes to
7:55 school this is exactly what happens we
7:57 have one system and we just expect
8:02 everybody to follow it now I'm not
8:04 saying that grading is useless and it's
8:06 all the teacher's fault because teachers
8:09 are actually stuck in the same system
8:12 that was imposed on them just like it
8:16 was on the students and we can't just
8:18 blame the policymakers of Education
8:20 either because it's not like there's an
8:24 obvious way to do this we can't just
8:26 overturn the current system completely
8:28 and say oh let's just abolish the
8:30 grading system and consider every
8:33 student individually because that's just
8:37 not realistic or at least not yet
8:40 however until we do improve the way we
8:43 educate our future generation there is
8:46 something you can do to help re-instill
8:48 students desires to go to school and
8:50 that is to
8:52 change our perspective on what grades
8:54 really mean and to realize that the
8:57 numbers do not define their intelligence
9:02 or potential looking back on history we
9:05 can easily find people who despite not
9:07 being at the top of their class they had
9:10 brilliant minds think of Sir Isaac
9:13 Newton who received horrible grades in
9:14 high school
9:17 think of Albert Einstein who also
9:18 received mediocre grades
9:21 similarly Thomas Edison was called
9:24 mentally ill by his teachers but he is
9:27 now known as a person who lights up our
9:31 lives literally so if you want to
9:34 realize the potential of our society we
9:37 need to shift the focus away from
9:40 academic performance alone instead
9:43 encouraging the desire to learn should
9:46 be schools focus not just the grace that
9:49 we receive it shouldn't be about the
9:51 comparative achievement but rather the
9:54 long-term progress of our students so
9:57 instead of relying on grace to measure
10:00 someone's success potential or intellect
10:02 we should just use them as feedback on
10:04 their learning and we need to stop
10:06 treating those that have lower grades as
10:10 inferior and when we can stop
10:12 marginalizing students with lower grace
10:15 and when we can stop forcing students to
10:17 believe that their grace is the only
10:21 indicator of success that's when we will
10:24 better and truly encourage the leaders
10:29 [Music] [Applause]
10:34 [Applause] you
10:35 you [Music]
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