Good grades. Something most of us like to receive. But how do we define good in terms of grades? If someone struggles in school, is a grade of C a good grade for that person? Is an A the only grade that qualifies as good? As usual for me, I don't have the answer, but I am willing to ask the questions. And that leads me to another point about grades.
Why are grades so important to us? I teach college, so I assign grades all the time. I tell the students that they will get the grade that they earn, and I stand by that, but there is a large measure of subjectivity involved. Isn't it easier to "earn" an A from a teacher that you get on well with? "But what about those objective tests?" I hear someone screaming. Well, didn't the test giver, or someone else involved with the school, decide what was going to be on the test and what the "correct" answer is? That doesn't sound too objective to me.
So why is this a touchy subject in our house? We have a high school kid. His grades will help decide what scholarship money he can get and where (potentially) he can go to school. Do his grades show what he really knows? Do they show his character? Do they show what kind of a man he is becoming? Change the pronouns for a daughter and the questions remain the same. What do grades really show? Why do we place the (sometimes) extreme importance on them? How many of you have ever had an employer ask what your GPA was in high school or college? I'd wager few (if any) of you have ever had it come up in a job interview. Did you graduate high school? Yes, that comes up. What degree do you have? Rather important to most jobs. GPA? I'll go with not so much.