The Average of Excellence

Everyone knows a “C” is average, right? It means you passed, you got the so-called “average” grade required of you on a given assignment. A grade of C should be something to be celebrated, especially in today’s society. As classes and programs in schools and universities become harder and harder, the grade of C – a passing mark – should have students breathing a sigh of relief.

And yet, as a society, we seem to have a very different view. A C is no where near good enough. Teachers, parents, and even students themselves demand more. They want the top grades, the best marks, no matter what the cost. Employers demand to see GPA’s that are near perfect. Some schools even try to push students above the coveted 4.0 GPA mark with weighted classes, graduating students with GPA’s of above 4.0, even close to 5.0.

How did this happen? And more importantly, what is it doing to the people trying desperately to get these higher and higher grades?

From a young age, I proved I could compete with top-level students and keep my grades in the high-up regions of the grading scale. I got mostly A’s through middle school, but I can remember getting a few B’s. Whenever that would happen, it would be like a crisis to my parents. Apparently, a B – a grade that is “above average” – wasn’t “up to my full potential.”

This began to irritate me even more in high school. Harder classes, AP courses, college level calculus – the courses I ended up in were very challenging. And yet, to those around me – my parents, their friends, even my teachers – nothing less than perfection seemed to be tolerated. It was enough to make me want to rip my hair out.

And then came college. Even with a load of 18+ credits in an engineering degree program, it seemed like A’s were all that was good enough. My C’s didn’t cut it. My mom kept talking about “getting my grades back up where they should be.”

Up where they should be? I was giving college everything I had, but getting A’s in engineering is a feat practically unheard of. It was the first experience I was having with today’s average of excellence.

A lot of people, it seems, don’t understand the demands placed on college and even high school students. It’s a rough time for all of us. We’re expected to manage our lives, juggle the classes we have and the homework loads that come with them, make friends and try to fit into the social network, get enough sleep to stay coherent in class, and keep ourselves from going crazy at the same time. Toss in some bills, a part-time job to pay them, and you have one crazy life where more often than not the student seems to be holding on for dear life.