For decades, grades have been the primary form of communicating and reflecting student mastery – or failure – of a subject. There is immense pressure from society and family to perform at high levels, and grades are the ultimate measure of performance.

I am sure we have all felt this pressure one way of another. When I didn't do well in Mandarin Chinese my first year of college, I immediately dropped the rest of the series and opted for classes I knew I would do well in. I was afraid of failure. The sad thing is, I loved learning Mandarin in high school, but I didn't want to jeopardize my GPA in college.

Like many students, I believed having good grades was more important than following my natural interest in a subject. We end up spending more time thinking about our report cards than we actually spend learning.

Grades remove motivation for authentic learning.

By focusing and stressing grades, children are forced to believe that the destination is more important than the journey. This message comes across loud and clear. It doesn't matter how hard you worked in a class or how much you slacked off; all that matters are a few little letters at the end of a course.

Students feel pressured to cut corners, sacrifice ethics, and take easier courses, all in an effort to achieve better grades instead of better learning. We lose interest in the actual process of learning in order to maximize the chances of getting an "A."

Grades do not reflect how much you know.

Many students get very discouraged when they see anything less than an "A" on their report cards. Low grades tell to students that they are not competent in a subject. We forget to teach students how there are many different types of intelligence; the grading system only accurately measures a select few.

The best way that teachers and students can replace grades is by giving qualitative accounts of student performance. This could be a narrative report or performance. The problem is that grades are so entrenched in our system that they will not go away overnight. But if you consider the entire scope of the system, grades may only signify to students what they don’t know versus what they do know.

Grades will not signify how successful you will be.

Report cards, GPA and SAT scores don't matter much in the real world. What matters is grit: the power of passion and perseverance. According to University of Pennsylvania psychologist and MacArthur "genius" Angela Duckworth, grit is a better indicator of future earnings and happiness than either IQ or talent.

The late, great Steve Jobs dropped out of school before graduating. John D. Rockefeller dropped out of high school two months before his graduation and decided to go off and start a little company called Standard Oil. Walt Disney, Richard Branson, Elton John, James Cameron, Frank Lloyd Wright – to name a few – all dropped out of school to pursue their passions.

Of course, people with great grades also have amazing careers in business and public life, but the point here is that grades do not determine that and should never be used as an indicator of how intelligent or successful someone will be. Despite the grades you receive, or wish you received, learning should be for your own personal growth and not to comply with societal standards of success.