Editorial

4 — Friday, March 4, 2022 — North Pointe EDITORIAL

Determining success through new measures Wealth is just the luck of

SOPHIA DRAGICH

In our world today, the culture surrounding success is a toxic one. Earning perfect grades, being an insanely talented athlete and perfecting musical talents are just some of the expectations society has for teenagers. Too often are people deemed “unsuccessful” or “failures” because they don’t reach these standards of excellence. While it may be easy to judge people’s success by their tangible accomplishments, success is much more than acing a test or winning a game. True success is actually the cultivation of positive traits, like ambition, hard work, and cooperation that cannot be measured by assessing work or calculating statistics.

Take students who have poor grades but work really hard in school, for example. These types of students aren’t viewed as successful in the eyes of society. Their assignments are marked lower than an A, and they consider themselves failures. However, what goes unnoticed is the hours they spend studying and preparing for their tests, the efforts they go through to participate in class and the time they sacrifice to improve their learning. Their efforts model ambition and determination, two traits that can be used throughout all aspects of life. These qualities are much more valuable than an “A+” in a gradebook, yet they are not praised accordingly.

Athletes who lose their games but strive for improvement and try to encourage their teammates are another group that society fails to recognize as successful. These athletes train for hours, trying to improve their skills. They promote teamwork and sacrifice themselves in order to build others up. While they may not earn a high amount of points or have their name on the record board, these athletes are still successful, because they are improving their own work ethics and positively impacting the people around them. It is these results, not only just the impressive stats, that should be praised and honored, as they are much more valuable than physical achievements.

While society may never adjust its views on success, we should aim to think of it in a new light. We can only do this by recognizing ambition, determination and cooperation as important accomplishments and honoring people who exhibit these traits. If we continue obsessing over tangible results and fail to change our ways, we will create a future where people will be so focused on winning the prize that they will forget to consider the important qualities gained in the process.

the draw

ED DESK

By Jo Jackson WEB EDITOR People are very judgmental towards those that obtain their wealth the non-traditional way, such as singing, dancing or modeling instead of working a typical 9-5. Influencers and singers do a lot of behind the scenes work and put a lot of energy into what they do, often even more time consuming than working a standard job. These influencers were fortunate enough to have an opportunity that could change their lives and they took it, which might upset someone who didn’t have the same chance to attain wealth.

Oftentimes, people try to tell wealthy individuals what to do with their money, such as donating a portion to charity instead of spending it on luxuries like an expensive house or car. If that person doesn’t put their money towards societal issues instead of themselves they’re seen as selfish or narcissistic. I’ve seen a lot of times on Youtube or other social media platforms that people are calling out wealthy people who brag that they bought an expensive car. People comment that they should be putting their money towards things that help the community instead of themselves. Wealthy people can care about issues without contributing to them, and it’s their choice whether they want to or not.

All of these examples support how wealth is commonly viewed by others and the classic stereotypes around wealth. If an individual doesn’t fit into someone’s criteria of being wealthy then that person doesn’t deserve it. People should just mind their own business when it comes to someone else’s wealth. There is nothing that makes one person more deserving of wealth than another. Having money is a reflection of whether luck and/or life choices have created that opportunity.

YOUR TURN: How effective do you think standardized testing is at predicting success?

By Kyleigh Egli DISTRIBUTION MANAGER

FRESHMAN JOSEE LEDERMAN: “For the average person, with average intelligence, if they get a bad score on the test and still try in life I don’t think it will bring them down at all. I don’t think it will affect them in any way, shape or form in their later years.” JUNIOR JOHN MUELLER: “I do not because different people are different test takers. Honestly, if you study for it, obviously it helps, but different people think differently and it doesn’t reflect on how you’ll do as an adult.” TEACHER SUSAN SIPOS: “I don’t think so because success comes from a lot of things. You could be really good at school and do a great job on testing, but not want to do any work and not be successful at the other things that you try to do. Also, you could have a really hard time with standardized tests, but if you work really hard and try your best then you can be very successful.” FRESHMAN MARIA CASTRONERO: “I don’t think so because it’s really hard to remember all the information that you learned during school, so I don’t think it’s a good reflection on how far you’ll go.”