Does Our Efforts Reflect Our Grade?

Kira Hawkins, Staff Writer

While teachers pass out report cards, the only thing you can think of is the small printed letter on that slip of paper that can determine your life forever. And getting the grade you never anticipated could go in two different directions. A grade that you worked hard for and really deserved, or a grade you didn’t deserve but was given to you anyways, or maybe the grade you received was overall pretty accurate depending on the type of student you are. But with this in mind, how do you know if teachers are giving you the grade you actually deserve, and are they? Let’s put it this way, not really.

As students, the best we can do to ensure a fair, good grade, is to show up to school, do our work, participate, and try our best to maintain an A. Though, there have been times where even our best, still can’t produce a good grade and fit those standards. Have you had someone tell you most of your life to try your best, and that effort and trying is key to success, then our best still isn’t enough to get that grade we actually anticipated? It’s nothing but a contradiction in and of itself. Weren’t we taught before high school that if we come to school, learn, and prove we are average scholar students that we can receive the grade we want? It doesn’t seem like that same old story anymore, does it? So when teachers input your grades do they actually consider that you did the best you could, and though you put in the effort it still wasn’t good enough for those percentages and categories they put in place? Well, yes.

Of course almost every student wants to say that their grade isn’t right and that teachers aren’t giving us the grade we truly deserve. Sure for a few of us that might very well be true. However do we really take into consideration that as much as we think we’re not getting the grade we deserve in that negative mindset (the idea that teachers are out to get us), but are instead seeing that a lot of teachers give us multiple opportunities to get a better grade and randomly boost our grades given the effort shown in class. So thinking back to the idea that our best isn’t good enough, maybe we students aren’t actually doing the best we can do and our teachers realize that, which is why we get the grades we do. There’s a chance that maybe you don’t see the good in your teacher giving you the grade you got. So until we realize the good in the bad, lets keep thinking we should have gotten a better grade.