Higher Gpas Not Necessarily Bad

“Grade inflation rampant” screams the headline. Today 30 percent of college freshmen report A averages from high school, compared to 22 percent 10 years ago.

It’s enough to make you nostalgic for the good old days, when teachers rapped knuckles, kids polished crisp, red apples, and an A, by God, really meant an A.

But before we panic and convene another task force, let’s consider reality.

Educators say that an increased percentage of A’s reflects positive change. The old grading curve, which doomed a certain percentage of students to below-average grades no matter how hard they worked, has been kicked out of class. Now most teachers evaluate whether a student has truly learned the material. Under this system, when kids are doing their job, they will inevitably earn A’s and B’s.

That’s no crisis in education.

Certainly, administrators and parents must back up teachers who grade fairly. Today’s demanding parents must not be allowed to deter teachers from holding firm standards. Public relations-conscious school districts must not slip into spineless grading practices just to keep everybody happy.

At the same time, it’s important to take a hard look at the curriculum and the level of professionalism in this region’s schools.

Many parents and grandparents are astonished by the level of difficulty of today’s schoolwork. People who lived high school as if it were a scene from the musical “Grease” know the easy A wasn’t born yesterday.

State reform efforts in Washington have already cranked up the pressure on students. Today’s intensely competitive culture, and the financial stress caused by exorbitant college tuition bills, further crank the anxiety. Ask the top-performing high school kids you know how they’re doing these days, and they’re like to answer, “Overwhelmed.”

Rather than exalting perfectionism, let’s create in each high school an oasis for sanity, a place where learning itself is most prized, a place where the pursuit of excellence and a realistic respect for students’ varying limits and potentials can co-exist, a place that builds character and emotional strength as well as scholarship.

When 16 kids with 4.0 grade point averages were all named valedictorian at Ferris High School last year, it’s likely that every last one of them earned that honor. Yet the reluctance to single out one valedictorian means there’s one valuable lesson they didn’t learn.

At the commencement ceremony, those Ferris valedictorians took turns reading passages of “Oh, The Places You’ll Go,” by Dr. Seuss. No doubt in the places these students will go, they will learn life doesn’t always dole out straight-A report cards.

That hard lesson, and the resilience it can provide, can take a bright student just about anywhere.