In this letter, Subhiksha Sreeram breaks up with grades, recalling how letters once ruled her worth and turned learning into a numbers game. She shares how chasing A’s left her anxious, perfectionistic, and focused more on points than real understanding. Now she’s ready for something better: curiosity, feedback, and growth—because no single letter should define a student’s story.

This spring, Grow Beyond Grades partnered with two visionary organizations—Human Restoration Project and gotLearning—to host the first-ever Growth, Not Grades student writing contest for high school and college students. We’re thrilled to introduce you to our winners—and the awards their work inspired!

Students, simply put, don’t care about school. In their eyes, it’s a place to go, do what they’re told, and memorize as much as they can, then go home and finish their homework before doing something that actually interests them.

So the question is: How do we, people who are interested in making education better for students, help traditional schools adopt some of the things that made my education so far fantastic?