Reflective Essay: Is It Possible To Get An A?

Having grown up in Hungary I was well aware of the student “labeling” system as a way of grading. Girls were expected to be good students and that meant in all subjects. If a student earned a “C” in an important subject like literature or math, then it was likely that she would not be able to get an “A” in any other subject anymore. Grading was subjective, not set up by guidelines. In addition, teachers considered the parents’ professions for assessing the probability of students earning an “A” for most of their classes or only a lesser grade, and the students remained at that level for most of their schooling unless an unusual circumstance arose. Lucky for me my father was an engineer which qualified me for the cream of the class, and I studied …show more content…
In my sophomore year I decided to train on my own for this race, since the schools did no special preparation for this. I went to the sports track every day for two months, building my strength and speed. On the morning of the race, I noticed in disappointment that my PE teacher was not at the race. As a matter of fact, no other teacher from my school was present. The uneasy feeling of loneliness came over me, standing amongst about 35 runners. They each seemed to have a coach, but I was alone. There was no other student from my class there. I felt like nobody cared for me. I started the race with the weight of sadness, but finished the race in second place. I was proud of myself, but could not feel a total sense of achievement, since the person whom I wanted to acknowledge me was not there. After about five minutes I started to feel nauseous and walked to a closest friend’s house where I ate and sat until my stomach calmed. This physical pain just added to my disappointment. The following Monday the teacher gave me an “A” for participation and an unenthusiastic: “-Good