From our earliest days in school, before we are even aware that we exist, we learn that it feels really good when you get work back with an A on top. We learn to love those As. Pretty soon, we become distressed if we don’t get an A. Or if we never get an A, we can become fearful or apathetic. We start to hate all the other grades, because they are less than that A. We start to view lower grades as failures and judge ourselves as not adequate and beat ourselves up. But why? What does each of those grades actually mean? Are we ranking intelligence? Are we ranking ability to gather and process information in exactly the way demanded by the teachers? Against whom are we ranked? It is a very unsettling way of moving forward with knowledge. I prefer 2 grades, A for Accepted and DA for Do it Again.