Recently, a class full of my fellow education majors and I were discussing school, grades, tests, and the pressures and stresses associated with each. It came to our attention that standardized and regular tests caused the most stress in our daily lives.

If life wasn't already hard enough, because of these pressures as teenagers and young adults trying to "make the grade," we are forced to put ourselves through tons of unnecessary stress.

All of our lives we've been taught that if we don't do well, we won't make it into college, we won't get a good job, and then won't live a long and prosperous life. But if we don't do well, we fail. Not only do we fail academically, we are taught that we will fail in our future endeavors as well. Our self-esteem plummets. What will we do with ourselves if we don't maintain that A/B average? We get sad, depressed and disappointed. That bad grade on a piece of paper can ruin your day or week. That bad grade is going to be sent to your parents so they can see how you failed too. You're not only considered an academic failure, but a personal one as well.

Not only does the letter grade reflect your numerical grade, unlike any other letter grade, F stands for failure. What does A stand for? Amazing? B for beautiful? C for... I can't even think of a C word. And D for decent. But F, that's a whole different ballgame. You skip the E entirely and go straight to failure. I understand that there is a need for grading students, but labeling students as failures, whether it be on a test or in a class, kills our self-esteem.

I also understand and support the need for tests. Without them, we would have no idea how the students are progressing in school. We need some kind of measurement to see how much they're learning and how the teachers are doing at teaching. But the amount of pressure that the teachers and administration put on the students for "the student's benefit" is unnecessary. The better the students do, the more funding the schools get. So, yeah, why not stress the students to the point where they feel like their grades define them?

There has to be a better and less stressful way to assess a student's progression. As a future teacher, I will make this point a number one priority. To promote the love of learning, not inflict extra stress. But as a student, I guess I'll just have to push harder through the rest of my school years to relieve my future students.