I graduated from college roughly 6 years ago. I’ve had it in my mind since about junior year (of college) that my college GPA was so low because of the liberal arts classes I had to take – the humanities courses that had nothing to do with my major that I didn’t care about and couldn’t motivate myself to work hard in.

Looking back at my transcript today, I know that was not the case. Those humanities courses certainly did not help.  But I wasn’t working hard in most of my courses, even some of the ones I look back on now most fondly and feel like I “got a lot out of” in retrospect. Imagine how much more I would have gotten out of them if I had acted like I cared!

In my primary major (mathematics), I was a pretty consistent B+ student.  I had one A (in linear algebra), a few B’s, one B- (in analysis), and the rest were B+’s.  In my secondary major (computer science), I was on average a B student, but that was pretty evenly split between A’s, B’s, and C’s.

Now that I’m a professor, I realize this must have been so frustrating for my professors.  I COULD do the work, but they couldn’t really say anything to make me do it.  If I didn’t feel like doing an assignment, I just wouldn’t do it.  That is a TERRIBLE attitude.  And it was the same problem I had in my humanities courses.  If I didn’t feel like writing a paper, I just would not write the paper.  The reason I got lower grades in those classes than I did in my major classes was that one paper in a humanities course (philosophy/English/sociology) is worth a lot more of your final grade than one homework problem set is worth in a math course or one programming assignment is worth in a computer course.

Another motivation problem I know I had as a student was that I prioritized work that paid above work that didn’t (school work).  I would take extra shifts at my job because I needed the money and because those people counted on me to run a business.  If that meant spending less time working problems or coding or writing or studying, then so be it.  I can’t recall a single time I ever chose to do school work when I could have been on the clock earning money.

I’m not completely financially unburdened now, but I’m certainly more stable than I’ve ever been in my life.  And aside from keeping myself and my pets alive, my only real responsibility is my work – I no longer have to choose between being a student and being a worker.  The great thing about my job is that part of my job description is to learn.  And for the most part, I get to learn exactly what I want to learn at my own pace on my own time.  There are no hard deadlines imposed by professors above me.  I am the professor now!  Of course, there are still hard deadlines (I have to have syllabi written and printed before the first class; I have to have lecture notes prepared before each class) and soft deadlines (I have to grade each assignment in a timely manner).

If you are a former/current/prospective student (or student’s parent) reading this, I hope you are not alarmed.  You might be thinking “Why would I want to take classes from a B student when there are A students out there?”  (Or: “Why would I let my son/daughter take classes from a B student when there are A students out there?”)  If anything, I think my academic record gives me distinct advantages as an educator.

I understand what it’s like to fail, but I also understand what it’s like to succeed.  I know all kinds of excuses for failure, and all kinds of conscious and unconscious decisions that lead to failure.  But I also know what it takes to turn those failures into success.  I may have never failed a class required for my major, but I did fail at things I considered myself good at.  Sometimes, it was because of a lack of effort (or the wrong types of effort).  But sometimes I felt like I was trying my hardest and doing my best and I still didn’t get the outcome I wanted.  These are feelings and experiences that many of my students are going through or will go through during their college career, and I am in a position to sympathize and also to give advice because I’ve been there, but now I’m on the other side.  I’ve made it.  And so can you.

It’s a well-documented fact that grades are not a reflection of a person’s intelligence.  A smart person can fail a class and a moron can earn an A.  I have never judged a student based on a grade they earned in my class.  I don’t think I’ve ever given any morons an A (to my recollection, every A I’ve ever assigned has been well-earned by a clever student who clearly had knowledge, motivation, work ethic, and perseverance), but I know I’ve given good students and intelligent people grades less than A.  Sometimes I saw a bit of myself in those students – intelligent and capable but at times unmotivated or too-busy or apathetic.  Sometimes I know the student came into the class completely unprepared for the challenge that lay ahead (usually due to circumstances beyond their control), and so to scratch and claw and fight their way to a C or a B is a huge accomplishment that I respect very much.  In my class, grades are an objective numerical measurement (usually a weighted average) of how many correct solutions to problems or correct answers to questions a student was able to produce over a 15+ week period in their life.  There is nothing emotional or judgmental or personal about it.  That’s how I was graded when I was a student, and that’s how I grade my students now.  I think it’s the fairest way to measure performance in a class, especially a math or computer class.  I don’t agree with all of the uses of GPA (for example: I’m not convinced GPAs belong on resumés because I don’t believe it usually has any bearing on one’s ability to perform the job he/she is applying for), but I do stand behind my way of assigning grades.

Finally, for the record, I pulled it together after my undergraduate career, went to graduate school, got much better grades (not straight A’s, but more A’s than B’s), got a lot of teaching experience at the college level, completed original math research, and wrote and defended a dissertation to earn my PhD in mathematics.

Every person is shaped by their past.  Every teacher is shaped by their previous experiences in learning and teaching.  I am a different teacher now than I was when I started 6 years ago, and another 6 years from now I’m sure my perspective will be even more nuanced.