What is learning?

If you ask, "Which would you rather get out of school: good grades or more knowledge?" the answer will be the same for any high school student. Good grades. Good grades have more tangible benefits; you can get accepted into better colleges, and you can brag about it - it's a status thing. There may be a student going around bragging about their straight A's and their acceptance to Ivy League schools, but they won't acknowledge all the useless extra they got, not to mention all the times they cheated too. The pressure to cheat is immense, especially in the Academy. Everyone talks about their grades, test scores, and college applications. If they aren't good enough, it's looked down upon. Who can forget the APUSH cheating massacre last semester? There is no excuse for what was done, but why do students feel the need to go that far? Because the focus of school is not learning; it's grades. If teachers were better paid, they would raise the quality of learning; if teachers had more freedom to teach what they felt was important, it would raise the quantity of necessary knowledge. Kids should not feel like their grades and test scores are the focus of their life; instead, they should be taught the importance of knowledge so that they will be more willing to truly learn.