I'm pretty sure American culture used to be this way about a hundred years ago, given the little research I've done. I also have some personal experience. My pa

I'm pretty sure American culture used to be this way about a hundred years ago, given the little research I've done. I also have some personal experience. My paternal grandfather believes that you can't get a white collar job without a GPA of 3.5 or higher. (I don't think he knows the A in GPA means Average) My maternal grandmother told me grades used to meant a lot more back when she was younger. To be simplistic: Grading in an organized public school system is fairly new to the world. Everyone thought it was the greatest thing ever and used it as the ultimate measuring stick. In America (forgive me for ignoring Europe, etc.) people have realized that grades are far from a perfect measurement. Because of this, changes has been made in many companies to find new measures to grade people by. I believe this is because American culture has always had some disrespect for authority in it. (It varies from decade to decade) It is cultural acceptable to challenge old ideas of thinking even if you aren't in charge. (Culturally acceptable doesn't mean you won't get your ass in a sling) Asian cultural is very different. It is family centric and puts great focus on respect. Old age is respected in a way it never was in America. Once you get stuck with some bad or marginal ideas they tend to stick around for awhile.