Average is Below Average
Jul 6th, 2007 by Eryk
Up until college, I always had a problem with school. The whole system seemed wrong, from teaching methods to the grading system. And yet, at the same time, the system seemed to contradict itself. Teachers used teaching methods that would reach the most kids, the average kid, rather than trying to teach to ALL the kids. It makes sense in a twisted way: given a limited amount of time and resources, if you are unable to reach everyone, it’s only logical to simply try to reach as many kids as you can. Nevermind that this style of teaching leaves the slow learners far behind and the fast learners bored and unstimulated.
Still, while the teachers are busy teaching to the average student, parents and society as a whole are pushing all students, no matter how ordinary, to be exceptional. There was a time in the history of the A, B, C grading system that an A was only awarded to the outstanding students, a B to the above average students, and a C to the ordinary students. Even today, the average GPA of graduating high school students is less than 3.00, a C+ average. Like the teaching method discussed above, this method also makes logical sense: given a five point grading scale (zero through four), statistically speaking most student will earn a 2.0 GPA.
So why then do parents and teachers consider a C to be a poor grade? One possible explanation is that since a C is average, parents don’t like to acknowledge that their child is merely an average student. However, I don’t think that’s the case. It seems far more likely to me that parents simply consider an A to be the standard, and anything less than an A is likewise considered to be below average. Most parents can tolerate a B, accepting that a straight A student is an extraordinary thing. But a C is so far removed from an A that most parents probably believe it to be a substandard grade. They perceive what should be an average grade as a poor grade, too close to a D or an F to be good in any way.
Imagine the pressure this places on an average child whose parents expect above average grades! Before college, I always thought that the problem was with the system. It’s only when I arrived in college that I realized that the problem really lies with parents who expect too much of average kids.
That parents expect too much from kids and that there has been a floating standard that has dropped in the past few decades. The standards have dropped further and further so that roughly the same number of students get passing grades each year while they are actually learning less.
Don’t get me started!
Exactly! Part of what schools are rated on are the grades that the students get. If most of the students are getting lower grades then it reflects poorly on the school. Unfortunately budget issues force the schools to make curriculum less challenging rather than highering more/better teachers.