Students are always going to have too much doubt in themselves. We think that we can’t do anything right, and ever since the pandemic that hasn’t seemed to change. But in all honesty, the facts back it up: we’re kind of dumb.
Originally, when we were drafting ideas for this issue, this was going to be a story making fun of the declining U.S. grade point average (GPA), but after two quick Google searches, that turned out to be false. It’s actually quite the opposite. The average U.S. GPA has increased from 3.17 to 3.36 out of 4 points in the last decade alone, but that’s not a sign to throw your hands in the air and start celebrating yet. Our grades are increasing, but our intellect definitely isn’t.
The Wolf hates to burst your bubble, but your high GPA might be a result of teachers awarding higher grades than students deserve. It’s a tendency to award progressively higher scores for work that would have received lower grades in the past years. While GPAs have increased, scores on standardized tests such as the American College Test (ACT) have only been going down. You can’t round your way up out of this one.
This self-awareness doesn’t apply to grades only. You don’t have to be a teacher to realize that we go to school with people who lack common sense at times. In an interview with Tualatin High School (TuHS) senior Brandon Galvan Pinon, we hear about some interesting choices students have made this year.
“I saw someone try to break their Chromebook on purpose. They were trying to see how far they could bend their Chromebook the wrong way until it snapped,” Galvan said.
At the end of the day, you can always blame COVID-19 when we all know it’s an excuse for our own lazy habits.