Lowering The Bar On Grades

What’s more important, learning or grades? I think the answer is obvious: learning. After all school is about getting an education, not about making honor roll. Right?

Wrong:

Residents of [Fairfax, County Virginia] have been battling the district’s tough grading practices; chief among their complaints is that scoring a 93 gets recorded as a lowly B+. After forming an official protest group last year called Fairgrade and goading the school board into voting on whether to ease the standards, parents marshaled 10,000 signatures online and nearly 500 in-person supporters to help plead their case on Jan. 22. After two hours of debate, the resolution passed

[...]

At most schools in the U.S., a 90 earns you an A, but in Fairfax County, getting the goods demands a full 94. Merely passing is tougher, too, requiring a 64 rather than a 60.

Source

Disgraceful.

Those who complained about the grading criteria are clearly misguided about what attending school and receiving an education means.

Take the word “education” itself. It comes from the Latin “ex,” which can mean “out of” or “from,” and “ducere,” a verb meaning “to lead” or “guide.” The Latin word “educatio,” therefore, means “upbringing” or “raising up.” To be educated is a process of transition from a lower, immature stage of life to a stage where one can function as an adult. We still use “upbringing” and “raise” with this sense today, “education” on the other hand, seems to have lost any noble and worthy connotations.