Why do upper middle class parents allow their teens to get B's?

[Anonymous]

Because we can pay for education and a good college and know that money buys everything?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't allow my kid. I encourage her to do as well as she can. I know that in a few years, she will be in college. In college, I will not be able to control her workload. When she is working after grad school, I will not be able to make sure she does a good job.

So, I teach her the importance of caring -- of taking responsibility. How? By letting her earn what she earns. I require her to do the work (otherwise, I will not pay for the phone). She is on her own for the grades. We do not hound her about things. (other than the one comment a year ago: miss an assignment, no phone for a week).

Oh, and she hates getting anything lower than an A-. But, it happens. I do not worry about her in college.

^^This, my friends, is what parenting is about. Raising people who can take care of themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest works her tail off to keep usually straight As but has had the odd teacher that is just a screwup - grading oddly or tanking kids. (Twice she received the exact grade to the decimal on an essay to bump her average to the next lowest lettter grade - no rubric, no comments, no markings, nothing to indicate how the subjective grade was decided on) Whatever. My kid has an awesome attitude and a self-motivated work ethic and that's what will make her successful in life. I think she's too hard on herself but I'm just the laid back parent!

Yes, if your child has less than an A, it must mean that the teacher is a "screwup." Right. You are doing your child no service by teaching them this attitude.

Neither of the above posters, but there are teachers that grade quite strangely. DD's teacher for AP Lang told the class, direct quote, that he "didn't believe in giving As until the end of the year." It was a very tough class and a daily source of frustration for my DD, but she came out at the end of the year a much stronger student, despite having received her first grade lower than an A in an English class. So there's that, OP. DD got more out of the class with her B than most of her friends that flew through the same course with an A from another teacher. A does not necessarily equate to success.

I truly believe that in cases like this, the school owes it to the students to make sure admissions offices know that this is the teacher's policy. It is so unusual that no one is going to look at the B and assume it could have been an A with any other teacher. It is just a needless ding on a kid's record just to prove a point.

I'm fine with principled grading in middle school, but as long as the game is rigged so that straight As are the bare minimum to get into a good college and scholarship money is so heavily tied to them, I believe teachers should think long and hard before giving a hardworking, otherwise talented student a B. I wish grade inflation wasn't so rampant, and that kids could earn real grades without it ruining their futures, but that's not the world we live in. I can't afford to send my kid to a fancy private school, so he needs to get in to UVA or get scholarships. I'd be livid if a teacher gave him a B because she "didn't believe in A's."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Allow? Ha! What do you do follow them to class and turn in the damn paper for them? sit next to them during the test?

This may have been the case 10 or more years ago but now everything is online and updated daily. It's so easy to track the grades and isolate issues for the tutor.

Sorry, nope. It is easy to track grades and see the number of things that were completed, but not turned in, sure. Tutors can't turn the papers in for these kids either, nor can they force them to write what they know in class if they don't feel like it in the moment because the girls sitting next to him smell so good today. There comes a point when you've done all you can and it is up to the child to follow through.

[Anonymous]

10 Reasons Why B Students Are Likely to Be Successful: http://www.lifehack.org/288189/10-reasons-why-students-are-likely-successful

Successful entrepreneurs are B students, not A students: http://www.businessinsider.com/lucky-or-smart-bo-peabody-2011-4

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love all of you conformists, you are hilarious!

I went to Langley and grew up as upperclass as it gets. I got Cs and Ds and then went ahead and graduated from the illustrious WVU with a bullshit communications degree, i pretty much learned nothing. I promptly put my fully developed social skills to work and entered in sales. Im 38 and making more money than surgeons and lawyers. I hit accelerators back in October and am on target to make 720k this year.

I probably could have skipped college all together and be in the same place today. You either got it, or you don't.

Impressive. What are you selling?

Pharmaceuticals.

legal?

It was a joke. Who knows. PP never answered, so maybe it's true.

NP... pharma sales can make a sh1t ton of money. They get training on the product so, like that PP stated, you don't really need a college degree to be a salesman. There is a lot of money in the pharma industry, as we all know from buying rx drugs. This is one industry the govt really needs to regulate pricing. Sorry, I know, totally off topic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10 Reasons Why B Students Are Likely to Be Successful: http://www.lifehack.org/288189/10-reasons-why-students-are-likely-successful

Successful entrepreneurs are B students, not A students: http://www.businessinsider.com/lucky-or-smart-bo-peabody-2011-4

It's 2017 not 1980 or 1990. Global economy. Everyone has a BA. If you want to make bucks you better be charming AND a great student.

[Anonymous]

I all but failed out of school, and have been far mores suucessful than pretty much anyone I went to school with. Grades, class, categories in general are not the final determination for factor for future success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10 Reasons Why B Students Are Likely to Be Successful: http://www.lifehack.org/288189/10-reasons-why-students-are-likely-successful

Successful entrepreneurs are B students, not A students: http://www.businessinsider.com/lucky-or-smart-bo-peabody-2011-4

It's 2017 not 1980 or 1990. Global economy. Everyone has a BA. If you want to make bucks you better be charming AND a great student.

Turns out, half of every college class, even Harvard's, graduate below the median. And it works out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love all of you conformists, you are hilarious!

I went to Langley and grew up as upperclass as it gets. I got Cs and Ds and then went ahead and graduated from the illustrious WVU with a bullshit communications degree, i pretty much learned nothing. I promptly put my fully developed social skills to work and entered in sales. Im 38 and making more money than surgeons and lawyers. I hit accelerators back in October and am on target to make 720k this year.

I probably could have skipped college all together and be in the same place today. You either got it, or you don't.

Impressive. What are you selling?

Pharmaceuticals.

legal?

It was a joke. Who knows. PP never answered, so maybe it's true.

NP... pharma sales can make a sh1t ton of money. They get training on the product so, like that PP stated, you don't really need a college degree to be a salesman. There is a lot of money in the pharma industry, as we all know from buying rx drugs. This is one industry the govt really needs to regulate pricing. Sorry, I know, totally off topic.

Ummm. I think the PP was talking about street pharmaceuticals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is any of this shit getting anyone into TJ?

Most kids are accepted to TJ at 13. So I'm assuming OP is referring to kids in HS. But, having been through the TJ application process with a kid-- hard to be accepted if your kid has a B ( something like 90% have a 3.8 or above, with an A- being a 3.7. But , there are many, many, may more 4.0 applicants, or close, than spots.

Now, once you get in, the really do grade on the C+ to B is average, A- to A is special scale for core classes. So a 4.0 is very much not normal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I all but failed out of school, and have been far mores suucessful than pretty much anyone I went to school with. Grades, class, categories in general are not the final determination for factor for future success.

Confirmation bias. You see what you want to see.

[Anonymous]

Because UMC parents have resources and their kids don't have to perform as well as poorer kids. The top academic students at my private high school were either the scholarship students or the financial aid students.

[Anonymous]

With online grading and access to private tutoring, there's no reason your healthy rich kid needs to get Bs. Most parents are just too self-absorbed and don't really care that much. A's and B's is great!

[Anonymous]

What does upper middle class have a do with it? Haven't you ever heard of the gentlmen's C? The valedictorian of my college class was a poor kid from the Bronx who was valedictorian of Bronx Science who went on to get an MD/Ph.D and has since gone on to publish a multitude of academic papers. He was recently honored as ou class's most outstanding grad.