You are not smart, you score well.
The public school system in South Africa is focused more on feeding information to children rather than teaching students. The teachers are under pressure, schools are overcrowded and resources are limited. So, the system bases which children are bright on who can memorize the most information and who can get the highest scores. I mean scores do matter, APS/GPA matter and it also determines what you study in the future and which higher educational institute you get into. The danger with this is most of the school system children learn the 'cheat code' which is to memorize information, score well, get awards, and into the next grade. The 'cheat code' works until it doesn't. See, when the child gets into the Further Education Teaching phase, subjects do not only require you to memorize the information but also apply what you have learned. Humor me, for a second…if a child has spent 12 years only memorizing instead of learning, how are they going to use the application? We will come back to this point in a second.
School and self-identity
There are sociologists who have spent their entire academic and professional careers studying the role school plays in a child's self-identity. According to Oana Negru-Subtirica (2024) academic achievement plays an important role in adolescents' self-formation because in many cultures, performing to perfection in school is seen as key to accessing as key to accessing the best education and jobs in the future. Education plays a huge role in the world and I believe in the power of education no one can take away your education it is indeed a powerful tool. Let us look back to the South African context, our parents did not get as many opportunities considering growing up in the Apartheid era, education was also not as accessible and they were most likely to get a job and provide for their families when they were well educated. So yes, your parents want the best for you that is why they will clear their savings to get you into the best schools possible. However, according to Oana Negru-Subtirica (2024), educational commitment is the key mechanism to a child becoming invested in their academic achievement but can also cause an excessive amount of perfection. There are a lot of factors that impact a child's cognitive and vocational development than just doing well at school. The very foundation of learning starts at home. The 'child genius' is a component of multiple factors such as what they are exposed to, their reading materials, nutritional intake as well as their physical well-being. Sociologists claim that schools were implemented because parents have to go to work. The eight-hour school system is a supplement to the capitalist system, a parent works eight hours so the school day is eight hours. Children do not need to process different loads of information for eight hours to learn. This creates a schooling system that is practically daycare.
Smart kid, no effort
The smart child at their core is still a child. They could do exceedingly well and even get into university early or get a PHD early but they are still a child. They still need the love and support from their parents. A mistake that parents make is that once they identify that their child is smart and well-behaved they stop parenting it's as though the child has become all that they can become and does not still need to be parented. The smart child becomes obsessed with doing well, having poor burnout issues and poor social issues. They learn that love and care are earned through appraisal and become distraught when they encounter failure, which they will at some point in their lives. Again, I understand that being a parent is the hardest job in the world but children should not have to perform to feel loved. Also going back to the point of memorizing and applying because of the 'cheat code', the smart child thinks that he/she does not have to put much effort into their school work because it comes so easily to them. It also puts them under a lot of pressure to do well all the time even though what is required at various educational levels differs. I saw this disturbing video about 'Why Chinese students study so hard’ on YouTube I will link it down below. Our identities are forever changing and multi-faceted a child failing or not being good at every subject is not the end of the world. Allow children to partake in other extra-curricular activities. The beautiful thing about children is their tenacity and ability to engage with many things at once. The more a child is well-rounded the better. Without talent exploration, we would not have our most beloved musicians or athletes.
Life-long learning
The way we should treat education and learning is of the concept of life-long learning. Teach children how to love how to learn and you will never have to teach them again. I love learning, I love engaging in material discussing it and bringing it to real life. So this smart kid evolved and became an adult who loves learning different things. Learning happens in many different ways such as reading literature. Movies, TV shows, and YouTube channels now teach a lot, it just requires some research and parental guidance. We should teach kids that they are going to learn until the day that they die and that is a wonderful thing as it will keep their curiosity burning forever.
Till next time, Cheers!
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