The Punishment of Good Marks

A talented young lady has a 99% average in high school, and has come to hate it. While rewards are supposed to motivate people, she would rather just get lousy marks so everyone would stop singling her out.

Several times a week, teachers comment publicly on "how easy this will be for you", or "Chelsea won't have any trouble with this", or "There's only one mark above 90 and that's...everybody now...Chelsea!"

Students repeatedly say "Wadja get, Chelsea?" or "You're lucky you're so smart" or "I wish I didn't have to worry about the test."

People don't realize how hard Chelsea works to understand the materials and complete the assignments. She puts in a lot of effort, and wants to understand the material. She wants to do well, but she's not out to beat the others, yet the whole structure is set up to compare students to each other. Teachers "reward" Chelsea with praise, which sets her apart from other kids and strains her relationships. Teachers use Chelsea as an example to try to inspire the other kids, but it just builds resentment, envy and animosity.

If you've never experienced being singled out for how well you've done in comparison to those around you, you'll know the discomfort Chelsea feels. It's bad enough that everything students do is marked, ranked and "rewarded". It's even more damaging when it's made public.