The B and C teams

Every so often an observation just leaps out at you when you are reading an article off the beaten path. That happened today when I read Margaret Wente's latest column in The Globe and Mail. She was writing about the Hemda Centre for Science Education in Tel Aviv, and there was a very striking comment as to how they identify who should attend:

Canada has nothing like Hemda. That’s too bad, because we could use a lot more of the creativity and innovative mindset that Hemda fosters.

“We recruit for the ability to solve problems,” Tehilla Ben Gai, the school’s director, told me as she showed me around the bright and airy school. Its 1,100 students, who are in Grades 10 to 12, have all been assessed in person to see if they have the right stuff. “B and C students are sometimes smarter than A students,” she says. “We’re looking for students who are creative – and we teach them that science is fun.”

Contrast that philosophy with what is happening these days over here, where absolute perfection seems to be demanded of anyone who is applying for a position anywhere. This organization is really doing its diligence to see who can really succeed, and many times being on the A team will not truly help.