High School Grading System In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

High school letter grades can either be a hit or miss for some people. A person can try their very hardest in a class, studying every night for hours on end, and still earn a C. On the other end, a person could walk into a class and not even study for an assesment till the last second and earn an A. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main protagonist, Hester Prynne, must wear a scarlet A on her dress, symbolising shame for committing adultery. Typically, a high schooler’s transcript can be their own scarlet letter if their grades do not meet the requirements at big universities and colleges. Letter grades in high school need to be based on a student’s participation rather than their grasp on the subject. The current high school grading system proves that accuracy trumps a student’s participation in a classroom, leaving unrealistic marks that either award or hurt a student. At my high school, letter grades are held on a pedestal, especially during the second semester. In March, there’s an honors breakfast that recognizes only a handful of students who have earned the highest GPA from their classmates. In May, there’s an assembly that recognizes students who
A student’s transcript can make them stand out from other students, similar to the main protagonist from The Scarlet Letter. Furthermore, by only grading a student on accuracy and not participation, high schools are awarding students who might not work as hard or take more rigorous courses than others, and they are also effecting the self-esteems of the student body, which can put a number on their mental health as well as their required amount of rest. In the end, high schools need to evaluate their students on participation rather than accuracy because for every poor mark on an actively participating student’s transcript dims their future, more and more until they are completely left in the