How the Hidden Punch Card Effect Limits Learning and Opportunities
The truth about showing up and earning a college degree
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I once had a student look me dead in the eye and say, "Well, if you think about it, I pay your salary." Another asked, "Which of the two majors you're recommending is the easiest?" Now keep in mind this guy wanted to get into med school. And then there was the one who, with genuine distress, said, "This professor doesn't tell us exactly what we need to study for the test! I have guided notes, but he doesn’t tell us what to know from them!"
Say it with me: “They said what now?!?”
Sadly, these aren’t anomalies. And this is where educational leaders get it wrong. These are everyday moments in a classroom. Adam Grant even wrote an opinion piece recently for the New York Times about how “No, You Don’t Get an A for Effort.”.
But it’s not entirely their fault. Somewhere along the way, education turned into a loyalty program.
I remember in elementary school, if you bought hot lunch for the week, you got a punch card. Each day, you marched to the cafeteria, presented your card, and got it punched. Five punches later, you’d successfully eaten lunch for a week. End of transaction.
For a lot of college students, that’s exactly what school feels like. Show up, present your metaphorical card, and expect a diploma at the end.
➡ The work? Minimal.
➡ The engagement? Optional.
➡ The learning? Hopefully not necessary.
For some students, education can start to feel packaged like a subscription service. Pay the tuition, sit in the class, and the degree will arrive in 4-6 years, guaranteed. Customer satisfaction is assumed. If the product is hard to use or requires thinking then it must be a flaw in the system, not in the user.
Guided notes and the rise of learned helplessness
At some point, we started giving students everything pre-packaged. PowerPoints with every key term. Guided notes with blank spaces that just need to be filled in. Study guides that are just rearranged versions of the test. If you hand students a perfectly formatted outline and say, "Here, this is exactly what you need to know," don’t be surprised when they panic at the first sign of ambiguity.
That’s how learned helplessness starts.
Students get used to being handed answers. The moment they have to think critically, they freeze. They don’t know how to sift through material and decide what’s important. They don’t know how to connect ideas that weren’t pre-connected for them. And worst of all? They blame the instructor for their confusion.
I remember sitting in some of my undergraduate psychology classes back in the ’90s, feverishly taking notes just to keep up. That was back when transparencies ruled the academic world. There were times we would raise our hands and beg the instructor to put the sheet back on the projector.
If you were lucky, they would. Though sometimes they’d just look at you and say, “Sorry, I have to move on.”
I remember having the chair of the psychology department teach my cognitive psychology class, who also wrote the textbook, by the way. It was a class of about 300, and he told us on day one not to expect an A. He said he only gave out a few each semester.
I had never worked so hard for a grade. By the time I was done, I had read that textbook over three times, rewritten my notes, studied them relentlessly, and practically highlighted the entire book.
But you know what? I got my A. You know why? Because learning is messy. It’s frustrating. It requires commitment beyond passive consumption.
Why "but I tried really hard" isn’t enough
Effort is important. But effort alone doesn’t equal success.
A lot of students believe that if they put in time, they deserve a good grade. They studied. They did the assignments. They spent hours writing the paper. The outcome should match the determination, right?
And yes that is essential, but it’s only part of the equation. Hard work is valuable, but success comes from applying that energy in ways that lead to true understanding and growth.
That’s not how mastery works.
Imagine a medical student saying, "I studied really hard, so I deserve to be a doctor." No one wants that doctor. I know I sure wouldn’t. We want the one who actually understands medicine, not just the one who clocked in the most study hours or took the most short cuts.
Grades aren’t participation trophies. They reflect what you’ve learned, not how many hours you sat at your desk staring at a book. The real world doesn’t care how hard you tried. It cares what you can do.
How to build actual resilience
The students who succeed aren’t always the smartest. They’re the ones who develop grit. The ones who figure out how to struggle through material, adapt, and keep going.
So here’s what actually helps:
Stop relying on someone to tell you exactly what to study. Take the initiative to learn it. That’s part of the process.
When something is hard, resist the urge to blame the teacher. Ask better questions instead of complaining that it wasn’t handed to you.
Treat effort as the starting point, not the finish line. Effort matters, but it’s meaningless if it doesn’t lead to legitimate progress.
At some point, students need to take ownership of their own education. Having parents step in to negotiate grades or academic requirements most times does more harm than good. It prevents students from developing the resilience and accountability that will serve them down the road.
I remember one student sitting in my office with his parents, who were absolutely stunned and flabbergasted as to why their son wasn’t able to start flying to complete his flight certifications.
Well, there was a GPA requirement—one that Johnny didn’t even come close to meeting.
You can imagine the look on their faces when I rotated the computer screen to show them his grades. I suspect they had quite the discussion when they got back to their car.
Actual learning isn’t a transaction
Education isn’t a punch card. It’s not a loyalty program. It’s not a series of stamps you collect until you qualify for a diploma.
It’s a process of struggling, adapting, and mastering skills that will actually serve you.
So no, showing up isn’t enough. Filling in blanks on a guided worksheet isn’t enough. And putting in time without substantial engagement isn’t enough.
The students who understand this? They stop asking which major is the easiest. They start asking which one will make them the best at what they do.
They’re the ones willing to think critically, push through challenges, and take ownership of their education. The undeniable reward? Becoming someone who can confidently tackle the complexities of life and whatever it throws at you once you leave the classroom.
"The price of greatness is responsibility." – Winston Churchill
© 2025 Bette A. Ludwig: All rights reserved
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Hey Bette
We’ve turned learning into a vending machine.
Insert tuition, press button, receive degree. Except life doesn’t work like that.
The real world doesn’t care about your participation trophy. It demands people who can think and not just regurgitate.
Education isn’t supposed to be easy. It’s supposed to change you. And that requires friction, failure, and occasionally wanting to throw your textbook across the room.
The students who get this will be the dangerous ones in the best possible way. Because when they graduate, they won’t be looking for the answers. They’ll know how to find them.
Churchill was right. But I’d add that the price of actual education is discomfort. And we’ve become allergic to it.
Lovely Bette,
You know sometimes I wonder how the great men and women have centuries ago still remain so powerful and impactful today even when they are gone. Back then learning and realism wasn't attached to modern technology or science adaptations it was more about the reasoning and psychology and the creative world of imagination.
I wish we could reinvent ourselves and leave a Mark just like they did.