Why We Shouldn’t Be Awarding Anything Less Than A 4.0 GPA

A scene most parents and kids are familiar with is that of an academic awards ceremony.  There’s nothing wrong with this.  It’s a perfectly fine way to honor kids for achieving their goals.  But as the event starts to drag on, and people are only half paying attention, the fact that not all of these kids should be getting awards in the first place becomes clear.  For example, at my elementary school, they had 3 levels of honor roll, the lowest one attainable by getting up to 2 Cs.  Are these really the grades we want to encourage the next generation to get?  Why do we applaud mediocrity?  It could because we just want to encourage kids to reach their dreams, but maybe our academic standards have lowered over the years.