Shouldn’t he accept the grade that he has? 

When I was younger, I could not particularly relate to the kids who had to get straight As no matter what. Maybe that was because I was an A- or B+ student, but I was always annoyed when people acted like getting the grade that you earned was the worst thing in the world. I was lucky enough that I didn’t have parents who totally micromanaged my education, constantly asking me about my grades and why I earned the grades I did. I knew I was responsible for my own grades, and if I did a bad job, my mom wasn’t going to go crying to the teacher about why I got the grade I did. She knew that I was the only one who could control my grades, and so did I. 

Not all kids have parents who can accept that they’re imperfect. They either demand their kids earn perfect grades, or else they go to the teacher and demand that she explain why little Billy got an 89 on the essay he spent 30 whole minutes writing. I do not envy the kids whose parents demand perfection, nor the teachers who have to justify their grading to entitled, whiny parents. Teachers aren’t always emboldened to tell parents directly that their kid did not do the work to the best of their ability, and that’s why they didn’t earn a perfect grade. 

The teacher in this story is struggling with how to respond to parents who are incredibly disappointed that their son has an 87% in her class. He hasn’t even started on the extra credit she assigned, due tomorrow, and they already want her to come up with solutions to their son’s problem for him. If they think they’re raising a well-adjusted future adult with this parenting method, they’ve got a big storm coming.