High schoolers know grades are important. Teachers stress it, parents push it, and students are taught from a young age to live for the grade book and the test scores. Are you learning? Doesn’t matter; are your grades good? It’s one of the many flaws in our education system. As a student myself, I can’t do much to change it, but I can control how I choose to approach the concept of a grade.
I hold high expectations for myself, and I always have because grades since kindergarten have been the mark of success. I know this is true for my friends, classmates, and high schoolers everywhere. I’ve seen the effect of grade anxiety on students, and it’s not pretty. I’ve been on the phone with so many of my friends in full panic over grades, crying and feeling like a failure over a number in an online system. I saw a study that found students nowadays have the same levels of anxiety as a psych ward patient did in the 1950’s. Your eyebrows should be raised reading just this statement alone.
One thing school has taught us is this notion of thinking. Schools praise us for good grades and for the ability to do everything, burn out being a big side-effect, and celebrating us for absolutely nothing else. Not our ability to love, not our ability to bring a smile to others’ faces, not our ability to help out someone in need, but only our academic perfection. This system enrages me and has for as long as I can remember.
The concept of grades aren’t only affecting individuals, but friendships. My friends are constantly consumed by Infinite Campus, putting their overall mental, physical, social, and spiritual needs aside. Shouldn’t that raise concern? Not to mention the grade arguments. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I’m in a group and then someone starts talking about a grade. I have some nerdy friends (I know it, they know it, so I can say that) and as soon as someone talks about a test grade, everyone jumps in, always attempting to one up each other. This is a toxic path to go down in friendships because one person always feels worse than the others. It wouldn’t be a problem, however, if the school system didn’t stress the “grades = success” model.
Contrary to what students like you and I have been told for years, you are not your grades. You are not defined by your to-do list or your test scores. I try to tell my friends this often, and while they may know it’s true deep down, they don’t believe it. I hope you believe that you’re more than your grades whilst reading this. That’s the failure of the public school system. Students are learning, only at the expense of their mental health.
