We are taught, at a very young age, to always have worthy grades.

As students surround themselves with academic stress and peer pressure, they lose their self-interest. As you enter the world of education, you will begin noticing how the playground trips turn into studying in the hallways.

Students over time lose their self-confidence based on the grades they receive, they can lose their personal goals and sporting dreams.

As a kid playing in a playground, studying the ABCs, students find excitement and don’t compare themselves with other kids. But as kids turn into teenagers, their grades start to dictate their goals, self-worth, confidence, and opportunities.

The grading system of college acceptances and sporting requirements—and even a best friend’s test scores—affect the mindsets and behaviors of students.

As a teenager, I strongly support the idea of putting extra effort into your biology test, or even reading a math book to sharpen your knowledge.

I strongly support the honest feedback from older peers around you, and I also suggest setting goals with your educational decisions. But some students can put in all the effort to get that A-plus that they can barely put that same effort to achieve their personal goal.

I have seen students be so in love with learning a subject, and then next year they can’t stand learning it. The way the school environment and system can affect the self-worth of a student is drastic. Some students have completely given up on their goals because they feel that they’ll never get that worthy grade.

I feel like we should remove the status of an A and the status of a D. As a school system, we should stop making value judgements about students based on test scores or grades.

We should encourage each other to try harder in classes and better our strengths in educational choices that no longer affect the way we view students, based on the percentage of questions they may not understand.

As the end of the school year comes up, a lot of students are stressing themselves out to have a higher grade than their best friends or a better GPA to play on a college basketball team.

Seniors find themselves—as graduation times come— that their esteem levels are much lower and their comparison skills higher.

As a student coming up with future decisions of your own, remember that your best friend’s test scores or a team welcoming you in by a GPA level doesn’t mean you should lower your self-esteem.