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Originally Posted by Da Munk
A C is only a bad grade if the student in question is capable of doing better. An average student should not be expected to earn above average grades or else the grading system is flawed.
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I agree. If a kid is a D student and gets a C, it's time for celebration and praise. The school where my son goes gives 2 grades for each subject - one for result and one for application/effort. I don't care much about the result. I do care if he hasn't applied himself.
(climbs on soapbox...)The education system is fundamentally flawed in my view. We (society) stream and praise kids according to their results in maths, english, etc, as if academic results are the mark of success. But I don't think they are. Do you really care if your neighbour graduated suma cum laude when he's an inconsiderate @$*&^? What's important in my view is not whether someone gets straight As in everything, but how they contribute and relate to others. Whether it's the thoughtful neighbour who brings your garbage bin in for you, or the person who lets you go before them in the supermarket because you've got 2 items to buy and they've got 20, to the person who dedicates their life helping the disadvantaged, etc. It doesn't take graduating head of your class to do things that make the world a better and more enjoyable place to live.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying academic achievement is unimportant. It is important, but it's not the most important thing in life. I've lived long enough now to realise that discipline and application are more important than talent, and that the brightest ain't necessarily going to be the best. Personally, I think effort should be praised more than results, and that's what I do with my son. You can have great talent and get nowhere if you do nothing with it. But you can really go places with a little talent and lots of work. That's why I praise my son when he gets great marks for effort, and I encourage him to try harder when he doesn't. Of course I realise you get your geniuses when you combine both talent and hard work!
But too many people put too much pressure on their kids to get results, say at maths or whatever, and make them feel it's the end of the world or, worse; that they're losers, when they don't. So if you do that I would encourage you to thing about this...probably 95 percent of jobs don't require maths any more difficult than fractions and percentages - (ie mid-primary school maths). So why make such a fuss about great maths results?