schools and knowledge

the school systems around the country and the world have individually decided on what they believe students should learn and should be able to know in order for them to graduate. A highly successful student in the school system is supposed to get an "A." The grading scale is merely a way of measuring how much a student has been able to temporarily memorize, or in some cases, guess the right answer. Do the grades that a student is given a measurment of their intelligence or of knowledge that they have aquried? Schools in the United States are now offering higher level classes. Middle school students are now taking high school classes, and high school students are now taking college level classes. Students have become obsessed with their rankings and their GPA's and have forgotten the primary reason why they go to school, to learn.