Nothing more than a single letter or number
Nothing more than black ink printed onto a white sheet of paper
But these seem to control our lives
They control many students around the globe
So engrossed in achieving that tiny letter A on a one-sheet transcript
Or increasing that GPA by a fraction of a point
These letters and numbers have been gaining power
Persuading more and more students to chase after them
Even pushing them to take drastic measures
They want to be seen as the “perfect student” in the eyes of college admissions
This makes them take certain measures, even unethical ones
You might these so-called “perfect students” cheating
Why?
Because they are afraid of having a small dash next to that A on their transcript
How did students come to be so?
The blame is to be put on the school systems
That have instilled this mindset into students
They have made students think that is the key to success
Pushing them until they start to face stress, depression, and worthlessness
They keep pushing and pushing, farther and farther from who we really are
Instead, why don’t schools reward students for who they are
They don’t reward students for their talents, personalities, or characteristics
When these are what really matter in life
You can’t pass an interview without social skills
You can’t start a family without relationship skills
You can’t make a difference in society without creativity, communication, and confidence
But schools don’t teach us how to do these things
They don’t teach us how to make a difference
They only teach us that we are nothing more than a letter or a number
WORDS FROM THE AUTHOR
Salma Abdelgawad
Senior year, a huge part of many of our lives. This is our last year of high school and definitely the most stressful. We’ve been going to college fairs, admissions visits, and counseling appointments to try to sort out what we’ll be doing after senior year. But every time they tell us “Focus on your grades. Don’t let your grades slip. Make sure your grades are high this trimester. Think about retaking the SAT to boost your score.” That made me start to think why we care so much about grades and scores. Yes, it is very important to get a good education and good grades show that the student is a hard worker and is motivated, but they don’t really make us better people. I recently had a discussion with one of my teachers about why students care so much about getting straight A’s. It made me realize that the only advantage of getting all A’s is getting to give a speech at graduation. But it has absolutely no effect on your future. I started thinking that maybe if we stopped caring so much about these things we could focus on other things that we really like and make our senior year more enjoyable. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t care about your grades. I think it is still very important to work hard and have goals that you want to achieve. But at the same time we should not let that control our lives. I’ve seen some people cheat just to keep their top spot in the grade. I do not think that’s okay at all. But, unfortunately, the way the nation’s school system is currently, it’s not going to be easy to change in the near future. Everyone is so obsessed with grades and getting into the best schools but I really think we should stop for a moment and do some things that we really enjoy. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately with all of the stress of college applications coming up and AP classes, but I want to set a goal for this year to make some time in my life to spend with my family and friends, do some of the hobbies that I enjoy, and just relax.
REVISION DECISION
I revised this piece to break it up into shorter pieces and make it flow better. At the beginning, this piece looked more like a diary or a journal entry and sounded like someone having an average conversation. It didn’t really look a piece of writing. So, I decided to break it apart into smaller chunks so that it would be easier for the reader to follow along piece by piece. I also decided to change the tone of the piece. In my first draft, I used the phrases I think, I know, I want, etc. many times. To make the tone of the writing more formal and less like a verbal conversation, I took out the parts where I referred to myself, my thoughts, or my opinion and turned them into statements. This made the tone more like a writing piece than like a personal journal or dialogue. Writing stories from my personal experiences or thoughts is the easiest type of writing for me, but I hope to challenge myself more in the future and be able to write something more abstract, something completely made up, or a different type of writing (like poetry).