A’s B’s and….F’s

Life is all about a grading scale, especially as a student.  We are graded on how well we perform in nearly every category.  If we don’t perform well then we receive a poor grade, if we do perform well the grade reflects that.  The unfortunate thing is that many students will receive A’s and B’s with little effort while the rest will receive poor grades regardless of their effort.

I believe effort is a factor that should be graded.  Of course it’s difficult to know how hard someone studied for an exam or whether or not they actually tried during a mile run.  However, I feel that if effort is demonstrated and a teacher recognizes the effort then it should be considered when grades are posted.

I’ll give you an example of when effort failed a student.

A while back my friend had been studying for a science exam and had been struggling in the class the whole year.  Her other classes came simple and often without the need of studying.  She just simply didn’t understand her class and continued to struggle throughout the year until it hit her.  She was going to fail but it wasn’t because of a lack of effort.

She stayed late getting help from the teacher and study groups, she studied at home with a tutor and she even gave up cheer squad so she could devote more time to her class.  She made those sacrifices and every effort to improve her grade but it didn’t pay off.  She just simply did not understand science.  She ended up failing the class but it wasn’t because of the lack of effort.

Now, I’m not saying that she should be given an A because she tried harder than the next person.  All I am saying is that in some cases grades should take into consideration the effort put forth to achieve them and in this case a passing one.

Most teachers already allow extra credit to help students with a low grade and some even post grades based on a bell curve so why shouldn’t effort also be an indication of a student’s performance in the classroom?  After all a failing grade can have dramatic consequences on a student for college and beyond.  If a student doesn’t plan on being a doctor or pursue anything to do with science then why should that failing grade, that she put so much effort into, prevent her from attending a college of her choice or achieving varsity cheer squad or even having a social life?

We can all applaud her willingness to achieve and her dedication to pass all of her classes, which there are a lot of high school kids that don’t even care, but it cost her much more than the grade.  This is a huge hit against her moral and will most likely hurt her chances of attending certain colleges and may prevent her from attaining her ideal career.  In this particular case I know she will keep her head high through this struggle and it will just be another obstacle that she will have to overcome to achieve greatness beyond the high school A’s B’s and F’s.