What Really Makes A Perfect Student?

The perfect student. When most people hear this phrase, some may think 4.50 GPA, perfect dress code every day (including spirit days), and the college of their choosing. While all of these qualities are amazing to have, they do not make up the perfect student.

The Talon took this phrase and turned it into something new. The teachers of CB took time out of their busy schedules to talk to us about their opinions on the ideal student.

Mr. Vince Leporini is one of the many teachers on campus who can truly understand his students and can really get inside their heads to see what they’re thinking. Now, that might be because he is a psychology teacher — or it could be because he really gets his students.

“I think the ideal student is someone that is curious and provides positive energy in the classroom,” he says. “Students are bought into a system like any sort of program, and when you buy into something, it makes you want to participate. Ideally, students should want to turn things in.”

The ideal student to him is not that stereotype that some students have in their heads when they are trying to impress a teacher. He believes that if you are invested in this so-called “system,” you will want to be that “perfect student.” Turning in assignments on time, getting involved in class discussions, paying close attention to the content that the teacher is sharing to the class — all of these qualities will come if you have the willingness to be a part of it.

Mr. Julian Elorduy ’03, one of CB’s newest religious teachers, has a similar view of what an ideal student is.

“It’s all about, ‘Do you care?'” he comments. “And ‘Do you care about the subject matter and about the relationships that you make at school?’ I think that the greatest test of character is when students don’t just care about the grade.”

Mr. Elorduy expressed that he is more interested in what the students put into and get out of the material. The purpose of his class is to want to learn and be involved, not to be forced to participate.

The teachers at CB all want you to succeed in whatever they teach. Whether that means art, communication, or religion, they are here to make us all better — even perfect — students. The goals of teachers aren’t just to send us off with a higher education, but to help us reach the full potential of individuals that they all see in us.

Grades are pushed on us from an early age. “The higher GPA, the better” has been imprinted on our minds so that we push ourselves to extremes to achieve. Of course, grades will always be at the focal point of our attention, but here at CB especially, we are taught that we are more than a number.

When we are stressing about college acceptances and tough AP classes, we’re losing track of the fact that we are being conditioned to be strong, more independent men and women. And that attitude is what makes a perfect student.