Underachievers?

As children, we are asked what we want to do when we grow up. Our answers evolve as we do. Veterinarian, teacher, doctor, firefighter are classic examples of the aspirations of the young. Some know early on that we want to write or act or sing or dance. I suspect few aspire to be stock analysts, though many will go on to ply the trade.

High achievers among us may say “President of the United States”—does anyone say Vice President? Given the popularity of our current First Lady, her titled position may be a new favorite of the young. It sounds good: make the world a little better with your efforts, enjoy the support of a paid staff and get to work at home. But your husband is the President. Uh, maybe not.

As a schoolgirl, I was dubbed an “underachiever.” By that I think they meant my grades did not live up to my standardized test scores. Nothing much was done to address this incongruity other than to note it in the comments section of report cards. I suppose they thought they could shame me into achieving. It didn’t work. I went on at my own slow pace, sometimes enjoying school, mostly avoiding it, until the temptation of graduating from high school spurred me to finish up with good enough grades to get into college.

I had always wanted to go to college. It was billed as a place where you could learn what you wanted to learn. Now I know the place to do that is life.

My daughter brought a friend home recently. He enchanted us with his breadth of knowledge of art and culture. He comes from a family of high achievers and my guess is he will not disappoint them. But he is genuinely engaged in learning, whether he is in school or not.

A friend of mine left school in the eighth grade to help support his family. He disliked formal schooling but went on to run a successful business, make wise investments and learn to do everything he wanted to do by reading. He can list machinist, architect and carpenter among his self-taught professions.

Another friend, who cannot see well enough to read, is one of the best-informed people I know on subjects as various as medicine, politics and farming. She listens to recorded college lectures and gets books on tape to stay literate and educated.

My son struggled with school. He always knew he wanted to make movies and was genuinely interested in a variety of subjects like science and history and literature. But he did not thrive in academia. This year, he was hired to supervise a group of French film students in New York City as they completed their thesis films. He was surprised, he told me, by what some of them did not know. He thought his own self-education, since he left college after one semester, had been more intensive than their institutional education. I often worry that he will have gaps in his education, as I have, that may slow him down or put him at a disadvantage later on. But now, he is working in his field and gaining experience, learning (and teaching) as he goes.

I continue to grow as a writer by doing, and by working with other writers. At a recent workshop, I soaked up the wisdom and experience of accomplished authors and worked at honing my skills. I learned things just last weekend that my daughter may encounter this semester in her Level II college writing course.

From this vantage point, I might edit my early report cards to read “slow achiever” but I am happy to report I haven’t stopped learning.

- Cass Collins