At least every five minutes, I check my grades on PowerSchool. They haven’t changed, and I know they haven’t changed, but I have to make sure they’re still okay. I know I’m not the only one who does this, and it needs to stop. Schools put too much pressure on students to do well.
Students are conditioned to find satisfaction in getting good grades. Some have tied their value to getting A’s. Someone with this toxic mindset might think, “Oh no, I didn’t get an A or B (or whatever they’re trying to achieve) so now I’m an awful person, and no one’s going to like me,” which is incredibly messed up. I don’t think it’s only the students either. Some teachers and parents have the same attitude and will take things away from their students if they don’t get a certain grade.
Frankly, I think the whole of society is programmed to “do well”. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing— the only problem is that our definition of “do well” can mean so many different things. It’s often associated with doing something to a good enough extent that you can get somewhere else. This is problematic because then we’re only looking at the means to get somewhere, not the actual end product.
For example, we’re supposed to get good grades in high school so we can go to a good college. Then we’re supposed to do well in college so we can get a good job. Then we have to get a good job so we can make money and have a good life.
However, no one has defined any of these terms. They all mean different things to different people and we’re being pressured to live only one of these definitions of a good life. Furthermore, not everyone knows what they want to do in the future so then we don’t even know what we’re getting A’s for!
I think schools need to put less emphasis on students getting A’s and B’s and more on the fact that they’re improving their quality of work. Not everyone has the same goals, so if we’re using grades as a means to achieve goals, then shouldn’t people be okay with getting different grades? I think so, and I believe that schools should be okay with that too so that students stop competing with themselves and comparing themselves to others.