I believe that education is about proving how good you are to yourself, not about proving how much better than someone else you are.

     But school is the reverse: It’s all about doing what you’re told and trying to do it better than other students.

     In middle school, my friend was so worried about being the best that he began to dislike certain people just because their grades were better than his. It ate at him until he eventually just gave up. He decided that if he couldn't be as good as everyone else then he wouldn't be successful at all.

       I believe that if students weren't so severely judged on how they compare to their peers, then more students would start making an effort to learn.

       I’d like to see schools find new ways to recognize how we perform in school, without putting us in competition with each other. Personal recognition is fine, of course, but associating a ranking or score with self worth isn't.

      While grade point averages and standardized test scores are necessary for most college and trade school applications, there is no reason they need to be the top priority for high school students, teachers and administrators. Too much attention on competition can discourage students who are trying to improve. If they are no longer motivated, learning deteriorates instead of improves.

One great way to downplay competition could be eliminating the “standardization” of school. While it seems necessary to have everyone on an equal playing field, it can really hold back some students. We aren't all the same. We all have different interests and abilities, and do certain things better than others. Too often students are held back from taking courses or participating in extracurricular activities because of required prerequisites or GPAs.

 An example of how downplaying competition works successfully occurs at the Key Learning Community, part of Indianapolis Public Schools. This school follows the multiple intelligence theory of Harvard University Professor Howard Gardner. His theory states that people are smart in various ways that can’t be measured on standardized tests, like the IQ and SAT. At Key, kids get to learn in lots of different ways.

Schools need to pay attention to how kids learn best and what gets them excited about learning. A lot of assigned books in school have bored me, but in a middle school English class I discovered other authors that interested me but aren’t part of my classes now.  Edgar Allen Poe is one of them. I wish I could spend more time at school reading his stories and poems.

I like to be independent when I learn. One of my main hobbies is working with computers. I used to mainly play games, but then my interest grew into designing games, and from there, I taught myself how computers actually work. If I had followed a traditional class in computer science, I’m not sure I would know as much as I do today. That’s because a teacher may have looked at my game playing – or even designing games -- as a waste or time.

But it wasn’t. Now, I run the audio/visual presentations for a church, and I am helping them build a new sound and video system.

     I believe in education and life-long learning, but I also believe that test scores and grades won’t make me smarter. Being curious and working hard will.