That all depends on what you think school is for. I subscribe to the idea that school is for preparing people for society and provides a "great filter". Doing

That all depends on what you think school is for. I subscribe to the idea that school is for preparing people for society and provides a "great filter". Doing a task your superior asks of you and doing it well is arguably the most important thing school teaches you, with time and stress management being a close second. This is what grades at school measures. People love to talk about the virtue of being "well rounded" but the truth is that knowing bits of Shakespeare or knowing different types of Greek collumns doesn't benefit you as a person. All that information leaves your head pretty much immediately anyway. This is all especially true of high school. "Exams demonstrating skill" are not what matters to the people who look at your grades.