Grade Inflation - Our misguided obsession with getting A's

School grades have come to represent the "end" result and not a means from which to learn.

The point of giving a grade is not to make everyone feel warm and fuzzy about receiving an "A-plus". It is SUPPOSED to be a way of indicating, "Here is what you did well and here is what you need to improve upon."

Education itself seems to have been reduced to a means of getting good grades - to get into a good university - to get a good job. Actually learning anything seems to have been eliminated from the equation altogether or, at the most, has become a by-product to the meat of scoring a high GPA.

This article from the Washington Post sums up a concern I've had for years about our culture's obsession with "getting good grades". I wish students, teachers, and especially parents would all read this article but here are a few telling snippets:

• "Many students... believe that simply working hard -- though not necessarily doing excellent work -- entitles them to an A"
  
  
• "Two years ago, a senior at New Jersey's Moorestown High School filed a $2.7 million lawsuit after she was told she'd have to share being valedictorian with another high-achieving student."
  
  
• "If parents pay that much ($28,000 for tuition), they expect nothing less than A's in return. 'Therefore, if the teacher gives you a B, that's not acceptable'..."
  

Grades have seemingly become commodities for sale, so why attend school at all?

If people view teachers and professors as simply being "service employees", they should just pay their money and get a degree by mail. Afterall, what's the significance of a piece of paper if everyone gets an A?

But read the article yourself here:
A's for Everyone! - by Alicia C. Shepard