I hope you realize there are some kids out there where their parents don’t settle for anything less than the best. That A- might seem good to you, but that kid could have a whole series of degrading comments and ‘you could have done better’ thrown at them at home.
It’s the way they were raised, anything less than perfect is a failure.

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Yeah, lemme tell you about the time I got 99% on an exam, and my father bellowed at me, “WHERE’S THE OTHER ONE PERCENT?????”. It broke my heart, and almost thirty years later, it STILL hurts.

You know what one of my most vivid memories of Year 7 science is? Throughout the year I’d gotten 96%, 98%, 99%, 99.6%, which was my teacher’s way of saying ‘I know you know your shit, but don’t slack off, I want to push you to be great’. Well FINALLY I got my prized 100%, and I packed it in my bag especially to show my grandpa.
You know what he says?
'So you ARE smart. Why couldn't you get this mark on all those other tests then?'
The next year I had such high expectations on me, when I got 80% I was shattered.

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If you are a teacher or training to be one, DO NOT arbitrarily lower a student’s grade for the sake of ego-checking, motivating, or literally ANYTHING ELSE you deem worthy of achieving. You are not only failing to do your job, you might also be directly harming the well-being of your student at home.

I knew a kid in my Catholic elementary school who was given a B once by a teacher who revealed they only did it because they thought the kid was too caught up in his grades and needed to relax. He actually cried in class. For the next two weeks it was like somebody had murdered his dog; he wouldn’t talk to anyone and all color had just drained out of his face. I never like jumping to conclusions, but I’m pretty sure why.

Stop your petty, tough-love motivational bullshit and take care of your fucking students.

the same thing applies in reverse. if you are a teacher or training to be one. do not raise a students grade because ofe any sob story or arbitrary reason. if they earned 99% give them the 99, dont give them the 100 unless they EARN it.

And for parents. Your child is only human. Kids that are forced to live up to extremely high expectations then to develop thoughts of suicide.