Grading!

“Did you grade our tests yet?” I think I decipher my class fellows saying the phrase at least ten times a day; followed by an animadversion or appraise. “What did you get?” “Aha! I got a higher grade than you” and so on. A few days ago, while taking notes in my Government AP class I zoned out into a maelstrom of thoughts regarding the origin and system of “grades”.

My curious mind summarily led me to Wikipedia, aka the devious little machine serving as an incendiary to a teacher’s abhorrence towards a student’s ease, where I came across some interesting articles regarding the whole system of ‘grading’. Although it began in China to distinguish and pick out the best of the people for running bureaucracy, I still hunted for some more information and therefore began to think about the “why’ of the situation. Why are we graded? Why is it that a certain number determines our mental capacity and where we will end up? Why are we to dedicate huge number of hours to something that we are not even sure will help in ‘life’? And to figure out the why, I surveyed some people including the brains of our class and some successful people, or so as the world perceives them.

I accost certain ‘intelligent’ people who thought grades determine the level of our intelligence and claimed I have a myopic brain since I thought otherwise. “Well yeah, if you get an F on your math test, which by the way everyone got an A on, you are dumb! How can you not understand math?” My friend stated in an overt and pejorative tone. This is like expecting a fish to climb a tree as well as a monkey and humiliating it if not accomplished. If we are living on this vision, we might as well expect the whole world to believe in one thing and regard anything otherwise as sacrilege.

This brackish mentality was disproven when I asked the similar question from some successful people who are content and halcyon with their life and found that their success is not a talisman or because of getting 100’s in all their classes, but because they were greedy for knowledge. They found the positive in negative prospects. They created something out of every bit of knowledge they learned, something useful. Although their goals undulated at times, they never stopped dreaming and sought suppliantly for knowledge, even from their juniors.

My trail of thoughts also led me to the whole concept of standardized testing. Fine, I admit, I was studying for the ever so dreaded SAT test and so my conclusion is probably prejudiced because I absolutely loathe opening that preparation book but my point of view is that the whole concept of “standardized testing” is just wrong. From gambit of our educational lives we are taught to be original, to be different, to create ourselves, to find ourselves and so our mind starts functioning like that. But as soon as we reach high school a race begins. Who’s better than whom? Who has higher grades? Who has a better GPA? Who got a 2300 on their SAT? Who is going to an Ivy League? We are tested, not on our originality, but a generalized and common assumption.

For example, you give a piece of paper and a pen to two people; one uses the ink to create a beautiful story on the very paper while the other makes a paper plane and uses the pencil to enhance it’s celerity. By the whole system of grading you are saying that the person who created that paper plane is stupid because he wasted paper by not writing something on it, your definition of intelligence. But I see this situation as difference of perspectives. Our brains are different. We define things differently. We view things differently. Then why is it that we are compared and ‘graded’ based on what your mind thinks should be correct?

This may seem like a histrionic rant of a desperate student avid for straight A’s, or maybe of a human being yearning for some change in the propriety of our system; but then again your brain is different than mine and you have every right to your thought.

9/11

Today is a sad day. The tragedy of what happened 9 years ago still haunts our minds. The cries of the loved ones are still decipherable. I was 7 when 9/11 happened, so I had no idea [naturally] of what was going on. But I can say that loss of innocent lives because of another supposedly human being is the worst tragedy of all. When your kind kills you, that is what hurts the most. Losing your loved ones is never easy but imagine you get a phone call from your newly married husband telling you he is alive, for now, but the building is collapsing and he won’t be able to come home that night. Imagine a single mom calling her 5 year old to say goodbye forever. I can’t even imagine the magnitude of that pain. And when a tragedy happens all you can do is pray for the victimized and try to find a ray of hope in that darkness. It was a very sad day indeed, and not just for the people affected but for everyone around the globe. It changed our lives, all of us have been targeted. Although we can’t feel the immensity of your pain, our hearts still ache. We all still wish we could erase that day somehow. So here’s a sixteen year old Muslim-Pakistani girl praying for the people who were affected by this tragedy. I hope your strength and courage to bear the loss never fades and that your loved ones rest in peace. Amen.

Where is your heart?

Eid Mubarak!! This is a day of joy, but alas there is nothing to be joyous about. There are 20 million effected by floods in Pakistan. No Eid for them. No new Clothes. No new jewelery. No Eidi. No Mehndi. The horror right? No. This is worse, they have nothing to eat. No shelter. No clothes. No family. And the worst of all, no hope. While we sit here and pig out on our moms yummy Sawaiyan(vermicelli), Dahi Baray, Chaat and what not…they are fighting death. People our ages, people younger than us. Can you not hear their cries? Can you not see that they need you? Are you really that blind? You are putting religious differences before humanity? You are accusing the whole nation for what some lunatics did? You are punishing that 5 year old by letting him starve just because some crazy-headed, I can’t even call them humans hence, animals did? Are we really that backward in our thoughts? For the love of humanity, help those people out. I didn’t make new clothes this time for Eid because I wanted to spend that money on someone in need. I am not trying to sound noble, because I am not, but I can say that if you think getting that new Coach purse or that new PS3 game is better than providing a meal to someone then yes I do think that my thoughts are better than yours. So it’s my humble request, please donate. You might be able to put food on someones plate, their definition of Eid. There are so many organizations doing beyond amazing work, trust them for once and be a little largesse.