Raymond Holmes-King Week 10: Grades
Grades decide the future of a student. A student decides how much effort they put into their work to get a good grade. Teachers decide what grade to give students work. IT is a vicious cycle of different powers that students have to go through, and grades hold students' futures in their hands.
Grades hold the ultimate power over students, and students bend to the grades will. If the students want to get good grades to get a chance at a decent future, they have to sacrifice a lot of their free time to get a better grade. If a student decides that they don’t want to put in the effort to get good grades, they are shooting themselves in the foot.
Grades are the power that students battle against every day in school throughout their childhood.Students have the power to choose how much effort they put into their grades, and teachers decide how much effort they put into teaching their students.
People say that grades don't define who you are, but they define what you can do in life. You have a lot more opportunities if you have better grades than someone who has worse grades because then you have a higher chance of getting into a better college. If you get into a good college, you can get the best education you can get, and then you can get a high paying job. To get all the way up to getting into a good college, you need to have good grades.
Grades decide what you can do in the future, which is kinda scary if you think about it. Luckily there are some ways that you can get by in life if you don't get great grades, but getting good grades opens more doors of opportunity.
Hey Raymond! I thought that the topic of your blog this week was really interesting. I agree with your take on grades, which is especially relevant now as we will soon begin applying to college and our GPAs have to meet certain standards. Just as you said, grades are not a true marker of intelligence but they do unfortunately define our place in life, or at least in college.
ReplyDeleteLately, colleges have been focusing less on grades and more on holistic profiles, which comes with both positives and negatives. On the one hand, if someone worked really hard to get all A’s in school but subsequently wasn’t able to do many extracurricular activities, this could hinder their chances of getting into a top university despite their stellar GPA. On the other hand, someone who doesn’t excel in academics could display their talents in areas outside of school, but not be considered at all for certain colleges due to their low GPA. I enjoyed your logical breakdown of the steps to college and how it all begins with good grades.
Overall, I thought that your blog was interesting and very relevant for second-semester juniors such as ourselves. Great work!
Hi Raymond! After reading your blog, I realized how much grades have defined our whole lives. From elementary school, I know that my parents pushed me to do well in school, and emphasized that my grades were important for my future. I know that, in high school, how much homework we have on certain days and whether or not we have a hard test to study for dictates what we do with our time. Right now, our grades control our lives, and as juniors who will be applying to college at the end of this year, it's important to be aware of how our GPA's can impact our college admissions. For many colleges, a high GPA is needed to even be considered, usually regardless of extracurricular activities. Many of us want to get into a good college, so we need to shape our entire high school lives around our grades.
ReplyDeleteHi Raymond! I found your blog especially relatable since I often have to remind myself that I am worth beyond my academic achievements. I definitely agree with you on what you said about grades. I remember a quote that said, "School makes students chase a letter grade rather than the fulfillment of knowledge," and I certainly think that applies here. Although I see the value of taking many classes, this one included, I often wonder (usually when I'm up late studying), just when will I ever be using trigonometric identities in the future.
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed your visual! Did you draw it yourself?
Hey Raymond! After spending a large chunk of last week worrying about POAS and all of this week stressing about the various tests I had in almost every class, I can confidently say that I 100% agree with your claim. Grades are more or less what determine what our future will look like. I know that they are meant to show how much work a student puts into their learning, but I think that it is so subjective—depending on the teacher a student has—that their intended purpose is not truly achieved. Regardless, they are still used to show a student’s competence and how well they can do in college. So, like you said, grades determine which college a student can get into, which then determines what type of job the person can get. Although I do agree that people who go to less well known colleges can still persevere and get good jobs, this takes a long time when compared to students who go to more well known universities and can get those good jobs almost immediately afterwards.
ReplyDeleteAll of this adds up and shows just how much grades can make or break a student’s future. They really do introduce more opportunities to the student, as you said in your blog. Thank you for reminding me that although grades are not everything, they are one of the most important things that determine what opportunities a student will have access to.