Therein lies the rub, the kid that works hard and gets C's is just that, average. Do we reward average or do we expect it. If we expect it then why reward what's expected? On the other hand the kid that excels for whatever reason, nature, nurture, or just plain luck still excels and do we ignore their accomplishments? Now, lets throw special ed. into the mix, what about those kids, lower expectations, para support, extended time on assignments, separate testing environment, modified exams, are their grades as valuable or relevant as those in reg.ed? The hard cold fact of the matter is, some can, some can't, some will and some won't. And sometimes your very best just isn't good enough. To truly have self esteem you must have suffered failure.