Do you remember the kind of grades you made in school?

How much of who you are and what you do today is influenced by those grades?

If you walk the hallways of any school or college you can see the weight of getting good grades etched in to the faces of the students. Rarely are they told that the grades that they are working so hard for does not define their full potential but only their ability to perform in that moment.

Those that do well carry their A’s as a sense of pride to their homes and in to the future, whereas those with C’s and D’s shrink with shame hoping no one notices.

The modern day grading system was created in 1792 by William Farish, a tutor in England. He created it so that he could process more children through the classroom in a shorter amount of time. The grading system that he adopted originated in shoe factories to determine if the shoes made on assembly lines were ‘up to grade.’

So, essentially a system to grade inanimate objects was taken in the name of efficiency and implemented to grade children and determine their future.

If you’ve let the grades you received in school define your capabilities and it’s worked out well for you then fantastic, but if you’ve gone through life thinking that you don’t have certain abilities because you weren’t good in school then perhaps it’s time to reconsider. Remember, grades are only one tiny measure of the entire capabilities of any individual.