I half-assed an important essay in high school. I got an A and was told it was the best essay. I got the grade but the writing sucked.

The teacher set expectations and graded on a set rubric. The grade would be based on how useful the writing was, right?

Nope.

We were graded on specific objectives. 1,000 words? Check. Thesis statement? Check. Sentence order? Check.

The nature of the project made it suck. I wasn’t challenged to think. The assignment altered the purpose. It wasn’t about producing value. It was about meeting objectives.

We had two months to write the essay. I skipped the four drafts we were assigned and my grade suffered. Why spend two months when I can kill it in one hour?

Some call this laziness. They’re right but they miss the point. Intelligent laziness is being less wasteful. Even if you disagree, this assignment is evidence of something important: school is failing us.

I was trained to ignore real value. I was taught to fill in bubbles. Creativity wasn’t required. Following the rubric was.

There isn’t a grading rubric in the real world. There’s only one box people will check: do you produce value? If the answer is no, you’re out.

School trains us to look for specific bubbles to fill in. A teacher gave me a grade. An employer would fire me. I was taught I don’t need to be excellent if I can fill in bubbles.

Robots perform set tasks based on specific guidelines. Students perform set tasks based on specific guidelines. Students are robots and school is killing humanity.

Your GPA doesn’t matter. School’s rubric is nothing like the real world’s rubric. Figure out where you can be excellent. Fill your time with that and remove checkboxes from your life.