The Pull Towards Mediocrity in Education

It makes sense when you think about the underlying interests that shape the behavior of students and teachers.

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Why is there such a pull towards mediocrity in education? It makes sense when you think about the underlying interests that shape the behavior of students and teachers.

Students often just want to get a good enough grade to avoid angering their parents, or to get into college (or get a scholarship to college) – and in college, they often just want to do well enough to get their degree and either get a job or be accepted to graduate school.

From the perspective of such students, the goal is to earn grades that are good enough to keep moving along their desired career path, while minimizing the amount of extra effort. Earning sufficient grades with minimal effort is totally different from maximizing learning.

Likewise, while teachers generally want their students to learn, they also receive substantial pressure from parents and administrators to make the learning process feel comfortable and enjoyable, and check boxes on people’s intuitions (however mistaken) about learning, while simultaneously ensuring that students don’t fall behind on any standardized tests.

A teacher’s goal is often for their students to perform well enough not to raise eyebrows from parents and administrators, while minimizing the amount of griping from students (and parents) about how much effort is required.

It’s easy to see how these forces pull classrooms towards a state of mediocrity: students need to learn some baseline amount that is deemed “enough” for their grade level, but there is no need to learn more than that, even if it is possible (and extremely advantageous) to learn much more in the same amount of time.

The pull towards mediocrity is not unique to education. However, other industries do a better job of counteracting it by leveraging accountability mechanisms and incentives to motivate people to maximize performance.

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