Grades: What Do They Mean to You?
Article: Brian Kang, Grace Oh
Editor: Hannah Kim
Designer: Sarah Cho
Editor: Hannah Kim
Designer: Sarah Cho
All teenagers are granted the opportunity to attend middle and high school, which are places of education, both academically and morally. However, many of these students face an internal conflict of what they consider a top priority in their life. The grades that they receive in classes becomes a part of their self esteem. A 2002 study at the University of Michigan found that 80 percent of students surveyed based their self-worth on academic performance.
Brian Chun, an 8th grade student, stated, “I think the teachers have a point, but I don’t think it matches up with us. I think the teachers don’t understand our situation, in terms of school homework and additional horror with the overflowing effort required for hagwons.” Another student added, “ I don’t think the teachers value grades as much as we do. I just know that all students take grades so seriously, but the teachers are pushing down this passion and effort to the point where the students don’t understand or get upset with.” |
On the other hand, one of the middle school teachers said, "Kindness, honesty, courage, and enthusiasm are the aspects of a person that I value more than how well they can write a sentence."
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According to a survey taken by 8th graders at SIS, their acceptable or expected grade was an A or higher. Their desired grade was exactly 10 points higher than what the teachers thought was standard and average. The difference between teachers and students were also shown through the habits and mindsets they believed students must have. In interviews with 8th grade teachers, they most commonly said, “Students should know that a healthy lifestyle is most important,” and “Grades aren’t everything.” However, these were the priorities that were almost never mentioned from students. Students mostly believed that “Good grades should be the first priority,” or “A close-to-perfect GPA is all that I need.” Most students sleep very late until the morning to study and actually believe it is the right way to fully study for an upcoming test.
Grades might have once been just a numerical way of showing a test result, but now have grown into something students consider to be a critical aspect of their lives. An existent problem that teachers and students will have to solve overtime is the amount of importance placed on grades rather than other aspects of learning. |