A year ago, I was stuck in an airport due to a flight delay. There was a group of 6–7 students from a highly respected university that is universally considered a “top tier” institution. As a result, the grades and test scores required to gain admission mean that only the highest achievers will be accepted. I ended up chatting with the students for 15 or 20 minutes and they all seemed genuinely nice and bright.
After we moved on, I turned to my travel partner and commented that while they seemed nice and smart, there was only one that I would consider hiring. Most of the students were awkward, didn’t make much eye contact when talking, and didn’t exude any level of confidence in a social setting. I certainly couldn’t have put them in front of a client or an internal executive.
Hmm,
While we push students to optimize their grades, we simultaneously and unintentionally push many of them to stunt their growth in other areas like social skills and emotional intelligence. I often see teenagers sitting together but not talking. They are on their phones constantly and sometimes even messaging those right next to them via their phone instead of talking to them directly.
Hmm
But then here are the "solutions"
How Do We Fix It?
I doubt we can go back to the days when an in-person interview was part of a university admission process, but there are steps we can take. Some time ago,
I talked about the idea of apprenticeships for technical fields.
My man has never actually worked in a technical field I guess. Passive Aggressive, know it all jerks, that like to pull rank, or sulk, or do things half assed... "Well actually mf'ers".
Wait, did I just describe myself.... moving on ...
Those would take place outside of, but alongside, a student’s academic program. However, there are steps that schools and universities of all levels can take to help produce more well-rounded students. A few ideas:
More of the same BS.
• Require team-based project courses starting even before high school so that students learn to work with others effectively in a team environment.
• Require students to present and explain their work, both in writing and verbally, to their peers, teachers, and others in the community in a variety of settings.
• Make joining clubs, playing sports, or other group social activities a requirement rather than an option.
• Teach courses focused on 1) communicating effectively, 2) listening to, and understanding, the viewpoints of others from different fields and with different skills, and 3) handling and managing conflict.
• Stress to students that while grades and test scores are important, they aren’t the only goals they should focus on in school or in life.
With the exception of oral exams - people going to the best schools are coming from these types of high schools anyway.
And low key, working in teams - be it academically or athletically - often resorts to "pass the ball to the best player" or "let the smart chick do all the work" - which is actually a GREAT SKILL TO LEARN FOR CORPORATE America as an employee and later manager - but not a great skill for the company.
When I see this type of BS being pushed by "thought leaders"
Now my feeling is that he's
really talking about a certain demographic that recently got schools to drop race as a requirement.
Because I know that many members of my demographic are great on soft skills - because we have to be to get into those rarefied circles.
Too many of us are punished for showing "leadership and management" skills, because it calls into question "who's really running things". More often than not, we get pushed into HR, DEI, Legal, "Employee Liason", and other unimportant to the bottom line positions.
Now since we (smart black people in every field known to man) know the problem, what would we do differently?
