mgl, I agree. In principle, that is. We've actually embraced the notion of doing what is boring or repetitive or, well-- just 'mundane' for lack of a better term. Hermione, here, isn't going to
get a letter from Hogwarts. More's the pity. She's almost over it now that she's 13, which is more than I am... and I'm 13 within an... (ahem) order of magnitude, let's just say.
What I do want to point out here, though, is that when academics come that "easy" for-- well, for basically "forever" up until the time when they... um... don't?
Well, that is NOT a good thing, either. Some PG kids can seem very hard on others-- but I can assure you that this is quite frequently NOTHING compared with how hard they are on
themselves. It does them no favors to clip their wings and prevent them from exercising them... if we ever expect them to stretch those amazing wings and actually fly.
Task-avoidant perfectionism. We now live with this and it is
beastly. Nothing less than an easy 100% will do, and because it is a "given" that everything should be 100%... all there is is the avoidance of 'failure' (failure being something less than 100%). If failure seems possible, it is best to avoid that task/environment/activity entirely. Yes, the ultimate synthesis of those two factors is that
there is no sense of 'success' at any time-- only the AVOIDANCE of failure. My DD is a textbook example of this phenomenon. She experiences no pride or sense of accomplishment from her (stunning) academic successes... only
relief when she earns (yet another) A/A+ mark. She avoids assignments which intimidate her, and requires push-parenting to tackle challenges.
Entering a challenging collegiate course of study with such a mentality is toxic.
THAT is the hidden cost of all of those years in a regular, undifferentiated classroom. In short, that is also why-- whereas we used to truly believe that what mgl says about the purpose of education is complete and accurate-- we now know that it isn't the big picture.
The danger isn't in losing their edge. The danger is that they may decide that if it isn't going to result in perfection... it's better not to try in the first place.
To be clear, I'm not suggesting that those soft skills aren't important, and that students shouldn't learn them. Far from it. Just that learned, inwardly directed perfectionism should be part of the risk-benefit analysis here.
