Why Doing What You Love Matters More Than Getting Top Marks

In an interview at Singularity University’s Global Summit in San Francisco, Esther Wojcicki discussed the future of learning and how to give students the skills they most need.

Wojcicki founded the Palo Alto High Media Arts Center and is also a distinguished visiting scholar at Stanford’s MediaX. She believes we need to change the roles teachers play in the classroom and the kind of work students do to encourage more passion and creativity.

“By the time they're in the ninth or tenth grade, kids lose a lot of their creativity, because the main thing they're worried about is getting an A,” Wojcicki said. “Creativity comes when you are doing something that you actually think of, and it doesn't necessarily have to get an A grade. I just want [students] to do what they care about it. And that creativity ignites the passion and the interest and then they have that…for the rest of their lives.”

Wojcicki said retooling education won't be easy, but it's essential it happens. In the interview, she talks moonshots in education and the importance of doing what you love.