Marks don’t measure worth

THIS is the time of year that draws an enormous sense of anticipation out of parents and their children. In just a few it creates a sense of dread, too, and in some an overwhelming sense of their inadequacies.

People develop and evolve over their lives. To measure someone on a moment, a snapshot in November, often proves an inaccurate assessment of that individual.

How many school failures become great successes later in life? How many school successes never reach the potential expected of their 18-year-old selves?

I am an exam script marker and moderator of many years’ experience. I have just returned from a week in Johannesburg, where I spent my days guiding a team of markers in their assessment of the 12 500 exam scripts written by the matric English pupils of our country who write under the auspices of the Independent Examinations Board (IEB).

There are a far greater number who write the National Senior Certificate papers, and both systems provide an astute and highly credible assessment that is rigorous and demanding of both the pupils and the assessors.

Whenever I interview a new pupil looking to come to Woodridge College and Preparatory School, I ask him or her to hold up his or her index finger. Being an English teacher by profession, I can’t help but add some drama to the scene.

I look very carefully at the finger that is being held up. I have no doubt that the young boy or girl and his or her parents at that point are wondering what I am up to.

But what I am doing is drawing together a critically important message that everyone should be hearing. After carefully scrutinising the digit, I remark: “Yes, just as I thought. I have never seen a fingerprint just like yours . . . and I won’t ever see one just like it again.”

You see, everyone is an individual: priceless, precious, wonderful, unique, special and very, very dear to all those people who are associated with that child.

We tend to pin everything on certain specific moments in our lives and it breaks my heart when I read in the paper of the suicides that take place after the matric results are released. Every year, it’s the same.

Every year people measure their self-worth on the results of the examinations written over a month in November.

We aren’t summed-up by these marks. They don’t represent who we are and, while they are important, there are countless people who have risen to extraordinary successes on the back of dire scholastic performance.

We need to keep everything in perspective.

Matric is important. Academics are vital and should be prioritised as the gold standard that all good schools do offer. And so while sound academics, coupled with sporting and cultural arms, form the bedrock of an holistic education, it is vital that we acknowledge that not everyone will measure up to the success of the few in this matric gladiatorial arena.

Children should at the primary core enjoy school. If they enjoy school, they will perform better. They will be encouraged to make the most of their opportunities. If they live in fear, as many do, of underperforming on the academic stage, then we do them a disservice.

If we measure success on the benchmark of matric results, then we do a massive disservice to so many who will fall short of those expectations.

Children are special. Whether they get an “A” for AP maths or an “E” for life science, each child is a priceless and unique individual who can make an invaluable contribution to the vast tapestry that makes up humankind.

To measure someone on what happens between the start and end of November of one’s matric year is critically to underestimate human potential, and it is one of the reasons why our society isn’t close to reaching its potential.

Children are special, no matter what marks they get. Let’s get that message out there.

If we measure success on the benchmark of matric results, then we do a massive disservice to so many who will fall short