Do Students Really Start A Class with an A?

That's an interesting concept really. Students start with 0 out of 0 points, so you have to EARN your points to get an A. The only way to really start with in A is to give the kids 100/100 points to start the class and then they LOSE points for not completing something rather than gaining points to achieve the A.

I think it's a psychological ploy, because I've read that studies have shown (although studies always contradict each other) that people will work harder to keep something if they feel like they already have it, than if they feel they don't have it yet. However, I agree with this whole "self-esteem" nonsense. Why is everyone so lazy and entitled today? Because they've been taught that they are special and they deserve the same as everyone else just for having human DNA, instead of having to work for what they want. Low self-esteem exists for a reason: to motivate us to do better. The only time low self-esteem is really damaging is if we're feeling negative about ourselves for something we really can't change (like the nose you were born with or your height).

Oh no!! That will damage their self esteem, you are such a monster! My teachers were like that, they said our grades were up to us and how much we wanted to work. These days kids aren't allowed to think of themselves as anything other than wonderful no matter how lazy or obnoxious they are. This is a real disservice to our children.

Guess it depends on your perspective, but I think yours is more logical. Reminds me of a story though. My mom was pretty much a straight A student (except for Home Ec), and one semester she had a new teacher. First thing the teacher told the class was that nobody's perfect, so she was starting everybody off with 5 demerits. Mom didn't like her much. One day my grandfather was working in the yard, and he saw a coral snake, so he chopped its head off with a hoe. Mom coiled it up in a box, wrapped it up all nice, and left it on the teacher's desk. Nobody saw her do it, and nobody suspected her because she was supposedly a goody goody. I'm told the teacher retired soon after.

This practice is supposedly used to "motivate kids," but in my view (based on long experience), nothing is more motivating than earning that A. There's this whole P.C. mindset, however, which the N.E.A./public school has, that you'll stifle widdle Susie's & Johnny's self esteem if you dare note that children differ from one another. "NonoNO!" they wail. "Just trying is good enough. We don't want to bruise their nascent egos!" The very word "competition" is eeeeevil, somehow, in (what passes for) these people's minds. The product of such a mindset lives all around us now: a few generations of spoiled, know-nothing kids who've grown up having earned little, & who expect everything to be given to them, just because they exist. Pah. Poppycock & twaddle, & other curmudgeonly terms. Hmph, even! Maggiepie “Vienes una tormente!” (A storm is coming!) ~ Prophetic warning to Sarah Connell ending the first ‘Terminator’ movie.