Why is average bad?

The post by 🐢❤ got me thinking.

When I was in school, I had a lot of friends who got their phones/cars/social lives taken away when they had grades lower than 'B' and I never understood why. The grade 'C' just means average, and I don't understand why that's such a bad thing.

If a child is applying themselves - doing all the homework, studying for tests, etc. but they still receive that grade then why is that such a bad thing? If they have missing assignments then that's one thing but I just don't understand the pressure we put on our kids to be better than average, and seeing how some of my friends who were punished for having average grades turned out, I think pressuring them to do "better than the rest" and punishing them when they're actually trying does more harm than good.

Do you expect your child to maintain higher grades than 'average?' Do you ever worry about how it could be affecting their mental health?