Meridith Small

Professor of Anthropology

Cornell University

NPR All Things Considered April 2004

"I think I'd better drop this class."

It was just after the first exam of the semester and a young women was standing in my office, clearly upset about her grade.

Assuming she had failed I spoke earnestly to her about hanging in there. I told her we were not even half-way through the course and there were two more exams and if she studied hard she could bring the numbers up.

But she kept shaking her head and and saying it would be better if she dropped the course and started all over again next year.

Dropping the course seemed like such a waste to me but if she were failing it might indeed be the best move.

Feeling sorry for her I gently asked: "So what did you get on this exam?

Turns out it was a B, a solid B. Two points from an A.

Stunned I spat out: "Your thinking of dropping this class because you got a B on one of three exams? What are you someone who only gets A's?"

She looked at the floor, long black hair hiding her face and answered, "something like that".

As a university professor hundreds of student pass through may hands each year and I worry about them, all of them.

In high school and now in college these kids have been told that grades are what really matter.

But as an adult long out of college I know that in the larger world grades mean nothing.

Sure for those who go on to professional schools the push for grades will remain critical for awhile longer. But for them too, grades really are not the point.

You know the old joke-

What do they call they call the guy who graduated last in his medical school class?

Doctor

And for all other kinds of jobs no one is really interested in the A or B you got in introductory Anthropology, they only want you to do the work.

But I also know that grades for high achieving students are more then just letters. They are symbolic of the life these young people expect to have. A perfect life filled with A's.

But over a lifetime even the smartest person rates a C, D or even a F on the really important subjects of marriage, parenting, friendship and love.

In the end, if were lucky, we all end up we a class average of a C in life, and were happy to get it.

Some of us just hope to pass.

And so they worry me, these students that can't even tolerate a B.

But maybe this time I will be lucky. On a whim, the young women who only gets A's might not file a drop slip this time, but instead take a chance on

being average.