To wish that for one day only, we could celebrate academic success

[Lelloteddy]

Without social media being saturated with whimsical/passive aggressive/patronising posts and sermons about exam results being meaningless.
And of course academic success is only a small part of life but for one day only, on the day when many kids are celebrating the culmination of a couple of years of damn hard work with decent A level results, do they have to be shot down with what often sounds like sour grapes and told that their success is unimportant ?

C&P from a FB post that showed up on my timeline as an example:

' There are many options available to you and other ways to achieve your dreams. From repeating your exams, various types of further education, apprenticeships or employment whether it be paid or voluntary they all will help you on your journey. We all have different routes to take us there. And one route is not necessarily better than another'

Is there REALLY any need for the last sentence? Talk about pissing on people's chips

Of course people will jealous of those with good results. It's not just exam results- it's everything. Look on here for the numerous posts about people feeling jealous about their friends getting pregnant, getting promoted, getting married. It can be hard to feel really positive and happy for someone when it seems your own life is being flushed down the toilet. The fact that you had a few snide remarks from fellow students does not demonstrate that we do not value academic success (the only reason why others are jealous is because we value it so much).

When we got our degree results, I had done very well, but a friend had got a 2.2. She was 'off' with me for a while. I felt a bit hurt but I understood how she felt. There are so many graduate jobs where a 2.2 just shuts the door and unlike a-levels, there is no chance of retaking to improve on your result. I felt gutted for her. I did not turn this around to say that we don't value academic success. We do, that's why she was upset.

Bullshit....our society doesn't celebrate academic success.....quite the opposite we value it above all else. DR's, lawyers, chemical engineers, accountants, management consultants. All highly paid highly valued careers that require academic success as a starting point. Non academic jobs/vocations are much less valued and less well paid...