I have a problem with setting the expectation that in order to be a valuable person or good student, one must be better than everyone else. The bottom quartile

I have a problem with setting the expectation that in order to be a valuable person or good student, one must be better than everyone else. The bottom quartile of Stanford is still pretty damn smart. We can't expect to be in the top 1% of achievers, because by definition everyone can't. So you end up with 99% of the population that has failed to live up to expectations and deal with the economic and psychological consequences of that. Always, with no exceptions ever, as a matter of statistical fact. That's just stupid and unhealthy. People should be encouraged to go above and beyond, but making it an expectation of all students is just stupid. If all students could do it, it wouldn't be above and beyond. We should be looking at absolute measures of competency instead. This eliminates the problem of the A student who didn't actually learn the material, as well as the C student who is perfectly qualified. I would love to see schools raise the standards for "Pass" to a useful level of competency, then grade everything pass-fail. The very best students could still shine on the basis of the quality of their research.