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Remember when a 4.0 meant that you had all A's? Now high school kids get varying levels of points depending on how hard the class was. Kids are graduating with 4.5 GPAs. Silly.

You're right. It is ridiculous. The mob continues to define academic standards out of existence. (sigh).

Remember when a 4.0 meant that you had all A's? Now high school kids get varying levels of points depending on how hard the class was. Kids are graduating with 4.5 GPAs. Silly.

Actually, I don't think that's all that bad. In fact, it's more in line with what the author proposes, since it doesn't let kids get away with an 'A' in an easy course being equal to an 'A' in the hardest courses.

That's true, but it's only half of the story. I graduated from high school three years ago; I was assigned two different GPAs, one weighted and one nonweighted. They always made clear which was which. I don't have the numbers off the top of my head, but I had a 2.75 or so nonweighted and a 3.35 weighted (which should say plenty about my high school experience - let's say that I didn't get along very well with some of my teachers during my first two years).

At my school, a point was added to your grade in every AP class we took, and a half point was added in every honors class we took. But the grades were calculated both ways, as was class rank, and they were always clear in drawing a distinction between the two.

I recognize what they were trying to do, which is to reward students for taking more difficult classes - virtually all of my classes during my senior year were at the AP level. But I think that in it all is each school's desire to get its students into the best colleges, and thus get more attention and state money.

Anyway, I thought it was all a bit silly then, and I still do. I'm a student at the University of Maryland - Baltimore County, and I fear that my fairly high GPA isn't worth as much when put alongside the grades of kids who are very likely the beneficiaries grade inflation (I'd like to think that my own grades are legitimate). In fact, I feel like my accomplishments - I'm on track to graduate with two degrees, one in English Literature with a minor in Creative Writing and another in Mathematics with a minor in economics - aren't worth as much because of it, much like I imagine those black students who earned their way feel cheapened by affirmative action.