Giving an "A" Grade


Reading the book called "The Art of Possibility". There are some wonderful concepts, which can be learned by anyone at any age or position and make a very profound impact on her/his life.

I would strongly recommend you to read the book, but here I will attempt to share the gist of this wonderful concept.

Ben Zander (Benjamin Zander) is the Conductor and Music Director of the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, a youth orchestra in Boston comprising both high school and college-age students.

At the beginning of every academic year, he gives "A" grades to all the students without even teaching them anything. The only condition he puts on the students is that they have to write a letter to him dated May of the next year (when the academic session ends), as to why they got the "A" grade from him. They have to describe what amount of hard work, dedication, and passion they have given for the current academic year on the subject and why they deserve the A grade they have got.

By doing this exercise, Ben elevates each student of the class to a much higher level of possibility, and the students are always striving to be the "A" graders of the future already in the present moment.

This way, there is no pressure on the students to be competing with the other students in the class, but rather they are all trying to learn together the beautiful craft of music.

It does not mean that the students don't have to attend any more classes further, because they have got the grades. But it puts an enormous amount of responsibility on the students to be constantly trying to achieve future "A" grade personality and student.

Ben does expect that there will be mistakes in the process of learning but does not believe in criticism. He encourages the students to acknowledge the mistakes made and learn from them.

He gives a wonderful example of Micheal Angelo talking about sculpture making. As per Micheal Angelo, sculpture is a process of just getting rid of the excess material from the raw marble piece. On a similar line, every human being is a fine human being, we just have to get rid of the excess unwanted stuff and make the fine human being emerge out of it.

There is another interesting example of "Rule #6". I am sharing a short YouTube Link video here to listen directly from the master and learn the concept.

https://youtu.be/1gd_GU_LG-U?si=FTC3_yrHVbC0JY5b

Hope you find this article very useful. Do share your thoughts in your comments.

And if you like, share this article and video with others, who may be benefited from it.

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