This system, as David Brooks highlights in his brilliant article, “How the Ivy League Broke America,” has several major flaws, including:
- The system overrates intelligence: “The bottom line is that if you give somebody a standardized test when they are 13 or 18, you will learn something important about them, but not necessarily whether they will flourish in life, nor necessarily [whether] they will contribute to society’s greater good. Intelligence is not the same as effectiveness.”
- Success in school is not the same as success in life: Adam Grant explains, “Academic excellence is not a strong predictor of career excellence. Across industries, research shows that the correlation between grades and job performance is modest in the first year after college and trivial within a handful of years.” Moreover, we have entered the age of AI, so if you’re hiring students who excel at standardized tests and writing essays, “you’re hiring people whose talents might soon be obsolete.”
- The game is rigged: “Affluent parents have invested massively in their children so they can win the college-admissions arms race” (including SAT prep courses, private tutors, etc.). Currently, the “academic gap between rich and poor is larger than the academic gap between white and Black students in the final days of Jim Crow.”
David Brooks proposes redefining merit around four qualities, and I believe schools can play a critical role:
- Curiosity: The system doesn’t allow for curiosity. Our schools kill it. Yet leadership, creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, a desire to learn, and persistence thrive on curiosity. Schools need to focus less on “covering content” and more on creative play, problem-solving, and real-world accomplishments.
- A sense of drive and mission: Let’s help students develop a sense of purpose. This purpose will evolve over time, but schools can open students’ hearts and minds to doing good for humanity. Schools should offer projects that authentically connect with communities, encourage students to see the relevance of their work, and instill in them passion, desire, and willpower—so they can proudly say, “We did that! We made a difference!”
- Social intelligence: Cognitive skills alone, as measured by regurgitation of content and standardized testing, are less important than the ability to listen, be empathetic, and show kindness. Social skills are a stronger predictor of success than cognitive ability. Schools must intentionally teach teamwork and collaboration. Students need to engage in real-world projects that provide opportunities to learn, grow, and reflect on these essential social skills.
- Agility: Perception is more powerful than brainpower. The ability to anticipate, sense, and discern cannot be measured on an SAT test. Agile thinking allows students to make sound judgments in real-time. When students engage in authentic, real-world experiences that are relevant to them, they develop emotional regulation, sound judgment, and the ability to navigate uncertainty effectively.
To transform education, we must move beyond outdated measures of success and redefine merit around curiosity, purpose, social intelligence, and agility. Only then can we prepare students to thrive in a rapidly changing world and contribute meaningfully to society.
