Grades

What are "grades"? The conventional response is "grades are an objective means of evaluating a students abilities based-on a series of scores", but can this conventional definition of "grades" truly explain the role or purpose of grades in life? Can a dictionary isolate the true meaning of a grade? What does an F mean? The average teenager is so consumed by the pursuit of grades that he/she is bound to sacrifice social opportunities to ensure that he can receive exemplary marks on his Functions and Trigonometry Test. Grades have become more than a means of evaluate academic proficiency. They have become an essential element in determining our identity. Its astonishing the degree of importance that teenagers tend to vest in these inevitably trivial letters. The Grade has become no longer a solely academic reference point, it has become a social reference point meant to suggest a certain set of underlying values and aspirations that may or may not meet those of the individual in question. An A student is assumed to be of exemplary character. A B student is assumed to harbor typical teenage apathy and is often codified as "average". A C student although "average" in regards to the academic scale is assumed to be of unimpressive intelligence, but their are no assumptions as to his character. He is assumed "tabula rasa". D and F students are not only assumed to be unintelligent, but are often labeled as being deviant. These classifications have served to ossify social groups and prevent human interaction based-on the true merits of each person. A person may be ostracized from a social circle for having grades that do not meet the standards, positive or negative, of the group that he/she aspires to be a part of.

Can grades effectively predict success? It is a commonly accepted belief that those that obtain the highest grades are ensured a comparatively larger amount-of success, than those that have received lesser grades, but in a modern complex capitalist system, the dynamics of success are not dictated solely by intelligence. The tenants of success exist in three parts. First, it holds true that throughout human history success presents itself to those most capable of channeling the passions of the generality. In Machiavelli's The Prince he suggests that successful leadership is determined by the sovereigns capacity t0 amiably manipulate the passions of those above and beneath him. In terms of personality traits, this tends to manifest itself in charisma. The modern corporal hierarchy is not founded-on the omnipotence of intelligence. The modern corporal hierarchy is comprised of a series of complex interpersonal interactions, the capacity to manipulate these reactions through charismatic behavior and interpersonal politick is essential to self-futherance. Second, specialization has developed as the primary means of self-furtherance in liberal economies since the genesis of the bourgeoisie in mid-evil europe. The theory of the case is that an individual can exploit the aforementioned specialization to manipulate the market. The robber barons of the 19th century used this concept of specialization, manifested in the production of a specific "essential" good, to corner every major market in the United States. It is the cross-application of one's talents, not the nature or intrinsic efficaciousness of the talent that enables self furtherance. Third, it is an overspoken cliche that capitalism offers opportunity to anyone driven enough to harness it. This cliche holds true as the modern economic landscape provides equal, plentiful, opportunity to those that have the drive and clairvoyance to struggle through.

I feel it is time to re-establish the former relevance of the grade as a, solely, academic frame of reference and reject its current role as a means of determining our identity.