What happens to valedictorians after high school?
http://time.com/money/4779223/valedictorian-success-research-barking-up-wrong/
What happens to valedictorians after high school?
According to this article from Time:
"Nearly 90 percent are now in professional careers with 40 percent in the highest tier jobs. They are reliable, consistent, and well-adjusted, and by all measures the majority have good lives.But how many of these number-one high school performers go on to change the world, run the world, or impress the world? The answer seems to be clear: zero."
Now, their sample size was fairly small (n=81), but at first glance, I'm not shocked by this claim. School rewards kids for following the rules and doing what's expected of them. Both are valuable skills in many circumstances, but they certainly aren't the pinnacle of life achievement.
The article goes on to explain their conclusion. The criteria they used to measure "changing, running, or impressing the world" are:
-Being a millionaire
...and that's it.
There's a major deficiency in this article, but let's ignore that for now. It goes on to discuss how valedictorians are usually smart kids that are the hardest workers and the most conscientious, not necessarily the most gifted or brilliant. School forces students to be well-rounded, which distracts them from specializing.
In order to truly "change the world" you have to be willing to challenge the norms and ignore people who tell you your idea is crazy. In a way, it requires more of an inward focus than an outward focus because you have to be able to tune out a lot of noise that won't help you get where you're going. You must be able to focus intensely on one goal.
The top two students from my graduating class are both medical doctors now. They will certainly both change the world for their patients, so that much is very admirable. They probably won't end up as entrepreneurs, but that's not the worst thing in the world. In my experience in the business world, successful teams need a variety of personalities and skillsets. When I'm forming a team, do I want a hard worker who is willing to stick to the rules to get a task done? Absolutely! But I also want a creative type who's willing to offer up crazy ideas and challenge the assumptions the rest of us hold a little too closely.
As far high school students focusing intensely on one goal, I didn't know anyone that could be described that way in high school other than athletes. The ultimate goal for most of those athletes was just to get a college scholarship for playing their sport, not world-changing excellence. The Time article implies that we need to be letting high school students puruse their passions in a more focused way, but I think there's real value in being well-rounded and having enough knowledge in multiple disciplines to borrow ideas from many of them.
The deficiency I do see in our education system is a lack of creativity and critical thinking. These are important skills that are hammered out of kids by a system that teaches to the test and just asks for the "right answer."
How about you: what's your class's valedictorian up to now? What do you think it takes to change the world? How would you change the education system?
Image credit: Wikimedia