Iâm 25, and in my trade school, our tests arenât judgement, theyâre testing to see what weâve retained, and identify what weâre missing.
If I weld a joint, and the CWI comes up behind me with a radiographic test for it and finds that I just laid hot metal on cold metal or it looks like a sponge inside, you know whatâs gonna happen? You think theyâre gonna give me a low score and tell me to move on? Fuck no. Theyâre gonna hand me a grinder and tell me to take it out and put it in right.
When thereâs actual work to be done, we donât leave it at the first attempt if that attempt was shit. We donât leave a trail of âwhatâs done is done.â If it takes you four attempts, thatâs what it takes, and next time itâll take fewer because you learned how to do it right after the third time.
School, as itâs set up, with unforgiving deadlines and single attempt high stakes tests are building a shitty work ethic. It says âI tried once, and thatâs all youâre getting.â It sets you up to leave a trail of cut losses and barely or unfinished projects as you scramble to get something, anything, turned in before the deadline.
And we wonder now why nothing works at launch.