KELSEY PHARIS// KATIE PICKRELL

High School is a place where people come get prepared to be able to proceed onto college and further their career. However, the common problem with school and getting into college is the idea of grades.

Is it more important to have good grades or is it more important to learn? Many students say it is more important to have good grades and be able to get into college rather than to learn something.

“Learning is better than good grades because it will make you a better and wiser person,” said senior Taylor Zakheim.

A lot of students at Mountain Vista High School say that while they think intelligence is most important, they also acknowledge that many teachers believe that a good grade is of a higher priority.

“If you think about it, some grades are based on if you turn your work in on time, not what you know,” junior Alex Algine said.

Another reason grades are so important throughout high school is due to their importance on college applications. “[I’d rather] get an ‘A’ with less knowledge than fail with more knowledge,” junior Ethan Lentz said, “going into college, a lot of them just look at your grades.”

Too many students are spending countless hours doing work for the higher purpose of maintaining a better grade point average while missing the concept that knowledge, not grades, have the potential to carry them further throughout life.

“Students are constantly pressured by the idea of choosing what you are gonna do for the rest of your life,” junior Kendal Young said, “if you don’t do well in school when you’re sixteen, you’re never going to go to college and get a good job and support a family.”

High school is filled with stress, and it seems that too much of it is focused on achieving a letter grade, rather than higher intelligence.