Monday, July 06, 2009

He Wasn't A Great Student Either


This bill board is in the Times Square area.

Its message is so true.

So many of my students were wash outs in high school and have gone on to be successful adults, contributing much to society. We have to learn to encourage, not judge our students.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So True!!!

I wish more people would realize that straight A's are not the answer. It's more about the child and whether or not he/she grew as a result of the education and not the mark received. I wish we could give A's for growth instead of work but you know if we did that someone somewhere would throw a fit.

Anonymous said...

This is exactly what being an educational scientist is all about. Thank you for this post... It was among my favorites.
YOU ROCK P.O.!

Anonymous said...

I thought a lot about this ad and wondered if this sends a message that you don't need good grades to be successful.

Certainly Einstein was no dummy... mostly likely bored.

I did find the entire campaign run by values.com very interesting.
http://www.values.com/billboards/

-ES

Pissedoffteacher said...

One of the other billboards is posted on the other side. It shows a boy in a wheel chair doing marathons with his dad behind him.

I felt the message was that you can be successful, no matter what your grades show--building confidence was the key.

I am sure Einstein was bored. I have taught lots of kids bored as well. Years ago I spotted a kid who was heads and tails above others although his grades did not show it. I pushed him onto the math team (hidden from Mr. AP) although his grades did not warrant it. There he shined. He is now studying Electrical Engineering at a prestigious school and doing well.

The NCLB laws force us to dummy down our classes. The best and brightest kids are not learning what they should. Some react by not doing anything at all. I wonder how many "Einsteins" are being lost in all of this.