By Tolu Salako
Staff Writer
The motto many Coppell High School students live by is work hard, get into college and maintain a well-paying job. Students know knowledge is important; however, many students tend to care more about their numeric score and will go to great lengths in order to maintain a high overall average.
Society today has caused students to work as hard as possible in order to maintain a high grade point average (GPA). The competitive nature of Coppell makes it even harder for students to become part of the top 10 percent, a goal many want to achieve.
Students come to school to learn, and what they have learned is tested through exams, orals and quizzes; but what they get from it is a number – the number most students are obsessed with.
Teachers are put in a tough spot in trying to make students care more about what they have learned rather than the two tenths of a difference between a 96 and 97 on the weighted GPA scale.
“The problem is that society says that the number is important, forcing [students] to care more about the number than the knowledge,” AP psychology teacher Jack Crocker said.
It is a widespread assumption that colleges only care for the grade students get in high school when in fact, extra curricular activities and their knowledge come into play when deciding if they want to accept a student into the college.
“My grade is more important because having a better grade will open up more opportunities and as terrible as it sounds, having better grades has a greater affect when applying for colleges,” sophomore Sydney Nguyen said. “I understand knowledge is important, but colleges care more about your grade and transcript.”
Many students’ main priority is college, and having worked for 12 years to get into the college of their dreams, the number means everything to them.
“I can honestly say I cared about the grade far more than my knowledge in high school,” 2010 CHS graduate Hiba Ibad said. “But now, since I plan on going to graduate school, my knowledge is a lot more important than it was back in high school because if I don’t learn anything now, I won’t really get anywhere with my career.”
Four out of the seven classes in the average student’s schedule consists of the four core classes: math, English, science and history. Not all students plan to pursue the same careers yet all are forced to take classes that do not interest them, making them not care for what they are being taught.
Since students are not interested in these subjects, they will take the AP level provided for the core class, work hard toward getting the grade, and by May, after taking the AP exam, all of the knowledge they have crammed into their minds is officially no longer used.
“The problem with high school is that it is so centered around the number,” senior Tori Clift said. “When I get that 2400 on the SAT or that 100 on the math test, I just say in my head ‘Is that it? Is that all I worked for?’ which stinks when coming to think about it.”
Knowledge is important but tends to go unnoticed because students are so focused on the score. It is not until much later in life students see the importance of the number as well as the knowledge.
