Have you ever heard the phrases: “If you don't get a high GPA I will ground you!” ”You got a bad grade!? Go to your room right now!” Well, I hear them very often. This extreme pressure makes us fear failure. And this fear leads us to many different limitations and problems such as not reaching full potential, being frightened to take risks, finding the easy way out and mostly cheating.
Every year 98% of college surveyed students had reported cheating in high school. Why do people cheat? First of all, It's a better alternative to failure. Most people when fail a class their parents or teachers punish them, cheating is a easy way of evading punishment. Students spend most of the time doing work that they don't wish doing. Work that they did not choose to do at all, for most students doing that work is purposeless. Finally, everything is done for grades. The system depends on grades and the best of all go to the outstanding universities that help them proceed to a successful future job. The base of all of the leaks of education is the massive pressure that all kids and teenagers receive every year. Pressure in children is a monster called “atychiphobia” that destroy their ability to screw up, take risks, find out the consequences and learn from failing.
Most of the time, we know what is our passion, but we still don’t do it. Why? We focus on what could go wrong or what we might lose than what might go right. Also, we follow the easy way or what our parents want from us. Fear of failure make us stay inside our comfort zone. In life we need to grow to become better, when we stay right where we are, our growth stays right along with us. We need to challenge ourselves to become a successful. But risk is not as easy as it seems, failure and challenge comes with it. It you look at successful people you will find important failures in their backgrounds. The list includes college dropouts, such as Mark Zukerberg, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates. First of all, neither of them finished college (in the eyes of some people, they all failed!). They followed their own way of success in life and become very important people.
“What is the secret to success? Never give up! It’s only when you give up that you fail. Everything else is just a short setback on your way to success. Giving up is the only failure in life!”
So, is the answer to pressure and expect the best always? Should students excel from the first day of school? Or should we be looking for students that learn? That make stupid and careless mistakes, that fall down, that can´t find a way around their problems and that, eventually, find a way. This are the students that “fail” in school but succeed in life.