The first year of college, I saw it as business as usual. How much work do I need to do to maintain myself? How do I satisfy the requirements of this new level of competition? The sad part is that I wasn’t informed that we weren’t playing the game anymore. In high school, my Mama would keep close tabs on my grade so I was always in the know. In college, I’ve had several professors who do not publish grade averages online. Students have to go to office hours to have it calculated factoring in the things like participation and the different assignment weights. Often without tapping into that opportunity students can neglect the severity of their situation. I respect that Parsons shut down any preconceived notions that freshman had of exploiting his class for a grade. He alludes to his respect for the classic idea of higher education, a system less focused on grades and degrees and more on the development of the individual. Is Parsons unconcerned with his students’ grades because he doesn’t care about their learning or because that never was relevant to whether they learned in the first place? I’ll leave y’all with one final thought. My freshman year, I learned more in one class that I failed than sum of the knowledge I gained from all five classes I passed.