We do our kids a disservice when we tie so much praise and love to grades. We (and they) would be much better off by praising their effort and work ethic. Grades are often subjective and not good indicators of what a student actually understands. Too often a grade is really a measure of how well a student takes tests, not on how much they’ve learned. Do your best, work and sweat, but don’t tether your self esteem to your grades.