Grades Don't Define You

Grades Don't Define You

I saw this on Pinterest and wanted to post it for all my students to see.  We often put so much effort and money in school that we forget that school isn't about earning a grade.  It is about learning and gaining knowledge.  I'd even go as far to say that a good grade doesn't mean you are smart and a bad grade doesn't mean you aren't.  A test grade is simply a snapshot of how well you did at a given moment. It doesn't reflect how hard you worked, how smart you are, or if you will be successful in life.  It really doesn't even reflect how much knowledge you have gained, as I am sure you learn things that you aren't tested over, or perhaps you know the material you were tested over, you just didn't perform well that day.  

I learned this lesson in graduate school.  We had to write a paper on our personal counseling theory (sounds exciting, huh?!).  For a counseling nerd professional like me, it was actually a really cool assignment.  The kind of assignment you dive into full force.  I worked so hard on this assignment and cranked out a quality 20 pages.  I was almost giddy to turn my paper in.  I knew I had NAILED it.  I was so looking forward to class the following week because I knew we would be getting our papers back and I couldn't wait to read how brilliant my teacher thought my paper was.  Boy was I WRONG!  After all my hard work, I got a ZERO on my paper.  For someone who always worked hard and excelled at school it really stung.  I'm afraid to tell you what went through my head at that moment ~ I probably would get fired for that.  But I can say I remember sitting in class, biting my tongue, choking back the tears thinking how unfair it was, how I was a horrible counselor and how I had wasted all that time and money going to school.  I felt like an absolute failure, honestly, something I wasn't at all used to.  If memory serves me correctly, I even told my professor how disappointed and furious I was because "I could have drawn a smiley face with a crayon and gotten a zero."  It was a group counseling class.  Half the class was learning about group counseling and the other half the class was actually participating in group counseling. It was an interesting/strange dynamic.  So, I bit my tongue through the education part of the class, but when it came time for our 'group session' I let her have it.  Probably not my smartest idea.

I learned a very valuable lesson: all that zero meant was that I misunderstood the assignment.  It really had no reflection on how hard I worked, what I had learned, on my ability to be a counselor and it certainly didn't define who I was outside of school with the stuff that really matters.  It was a painful experience.  But a lesson I needed to learn.  Luckily, my professor let me revise my assignment that better fit what she was looking for.  But, the real lesson learned wasn't in the paper, it was in the entire experience.  Y'all ~ I'm not looking for perfection.  And neither should you.  Yes, I have to hand out grades to assess how you are doing in the class, but rest assured I see each of you as more than a single test grade.  

I'm posting this because I wanted to share a little of my experience with you.  I wanted to let you know to cut yourself some slack if perhaps you didn't do as well as you had hoped.  And, if you did great, then celebrate! But, know that you are the exact same person you were before you passed/failed any quiz, assignment or exam.  Grades don't define you!