Advanced vs. Regular

       Though I quite enjoyed the story of Amy-the-hurt-five-year-old-little-sister-turned-Amy-the-special-unicorn, I think that perhaps the funniest part of The Happiness Advantage would have to be when Shawn Achor claimed that we will remain average if we study what's average. I know he was talking in regard to positive psychology, and in that his statement was quite true, but I was still struck by its irony.

       A topic we have discussed in the past, and will probably continue to whine and complain about, is the fact that our standards continue to rise and we feel obligated to reach for that unrealistically high standard. Getting an A in a class that our parents or older siblings took may mean excessive amounts of homework, little sleep, and a boatload of stress that they didn't have to experience. It seems unfair to have to work harder and remember more while still getting lower grades than those who didn't have to break a sweat, especially now that someone is telling us that we're merely going to remain average.

       Even our conversation in class when Ms. Fletcher pointed out that being smart isn't something that most guys try for because it's not necessarily 'manly' seemed to add to the mockery. Though this is definitely the case, the guys I know that do "try" are freakishly smart, sometimes frustratingly so when they are capable of so much more than merely getting by and yet decide to be lazy instead.

       However, this is only when you isolate these statements and then apply them to a perspective that only a handful of the population has. My inability to receive the information without noting the irony only revealed that I am a part of that group, and therein lies the problem. If a majority of the population is tailored to the average, the differences between what is average and what is not can become a divide that is not only seen in work ethic and social status, but also mentality.

       We contribute to the divide. My friends and I often to refer to students not in advanced classes as "regulars." Last year when I myself was in a regular history class, I'd comment that Maher was the only person I had in that class, meaning that he was mentally on the same page as me and wasn't completely opposed to learning. (Thanks bud.) Subconsciously realizing that someone does not share your mentality towards learning creates barrier that often isn't of any concern or even noticed, but it doesn't change the fact that it's still there.

       I feel like instead of compartmentalizing our lives to the average when we find it necessary, we should push what is average higher, just as we push our standards of what is "successful" or a "good grade" to meet this never-ending inflation. Not to say that everyone needs to be in advanced classes or be pushed into the college-bound mindset; instead, we should push each other to contradict the average in what we could excel at but chose not to. This is much of what Ken Robinson spoke of when he said that education dislocates people from their natural talents, but I think that there is a very simple way for us to take action against that trend.

      Maybe it's just me, but maybe it's a mentality that all of us harbor and do not notice. Either way, my belief is that the flaws of the American education system do not stem only from the system, but also the way we conduct ourselves while in it. Is it a realistic goal to create a support system that unifies and supports a student body that includes people from all walks of life to reach their full potential?

-Elizabeth Reza