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San Clemente, CA, United States

Saturday, April 13, 2019

Bees

When did receiving a B in a class become a bad thing?  Why are kids LITERALLY crying as they beg for points to be added to their grade.  “I HAVE to get an A in this class!”  

What have we done to these kids?

If you earn a B in my Calculus class, you should be skipping.  You should run outside and scream from the mountaintops, “ I AM SPARTACUS!”  You should brag to your friends, add a little swag to your step, and walk with your shoulders back, eyes up, standing just a bit taller.   You should be proud of yourself for mastering limits, continuity, differentiation, related rates, optimization, velocity and acceleration, integration, area, and volume.  You handled logarithmic differentiation and u-substitution integration.  You should, in all seriousness, be really proud of yourself.  What an accomplishment.  Mathematically, you are walking where less than 2% walk.  Congratulations.

I know you can't see this right now, but your grade doesn't matter.  Years from now?  It isn't the grade.    It is the confidence you gained in yourself by doing this.  A grade of B in Calculus?  Well done.  And all you.  Your mom didn’t do your homework for you.  You walked in and passed Calculus on your own.  As you move forward in life, know that you have done something impressive.  Let that carry you and give you confidence that “you have game.”  This isn’t like the U9 soccer trophy on your dresser.  Let this B give you confidence about your abilities as you go forward. 

And when did doing something right 85% of the time become looked down upon? 85%.  8.5 out of every 10?  There is NOTHING that I do correctly 8 and a half times out of 10.  I don’t brush my teeth right 8 out of 10 times.  I don’t dress right 8  out of 10 times.  My point is that when you think about it, 85 % is pretty impressive.  

I get it, “…..its hard to get into college.”  Well, shut up.  No it isn’t.  It is easier than ever to get into a college.  Maybe not the one you dreamed about as a kid, but there are hundreds of others that will accept you. 


At 17, begging diminishes you.  Stop it.  Take the grade you earned and do something about it next semester or don’t.  But I’m done watching kids cry over B’s.  Congratulations.  And if it is your parents that are badgering you, have them call me.   

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