I think everyone has higher hopes for education than simply grades achievement. That said, for the author, grades achievement was a prerequisite to success. Without his good grades, he would not have been able to go past primary school, or gotten Fulbright Scholarship that brought him to the United States. In this case he had to have those good grades. Without them, his life would have been a very different story. As he says at one point, maybe he would have become a Postman.BrittaniDJ wrote: ↑05 Jul 2019, 22:18 I got the impression from reading the sample of this book, that education was important as an opportunity provider - gateway to a broader world. I also felt as though 'medals' - grades, social status, self-motivation, were a higher focus than what the good doctor learned or how he was taught in school. What he learned came out more in his day to day interactions with the world, rather than in the classroom. I realize this man grew up in a different country and in a different time period of education, but I do have higher hopes for education than simply grades achievement.
In this way, the author's focus on his grades is the same as a professional athlete focusing on winning games in high school and college. We all know that being on a sports team is about more than winning and losing, and that it develops all sorts of different skills in people. But for someone to become a professional athlete, they have to get noticed in high school by the college recruiters, and then in college, they have to get noticed by the talent scouts for the teams. Winning games is how that is done.
Dr Douglas focuses on his grades because his grades are what got him noticed. They are what got him his opportunities.