What must I get on the final to earn an A?

I bumped into a professor in the math department the other day on the way to the math department party and during the course of the conversation he shared the following little anecdote that I think is worth sharing:

Why is it that students ask, "How well must I do on the final to earn ...?" If you them that they must get 80% on the final to earn a B, are they somehow more capable of getting an 80%?

Non-rhetorically, why do students ask this absurd question? I don't know, but I think it's all an illusion and I dislike it. Instead of the "do the best you can" mentality I hope for students to have, the exam is seen as a game of grades. Yes, the assessment leads to a grade, but the grade is the afterthought to the educational value of the content being taught. The right question is "What can I learn?" not "What must I do?"

Thinking about this question has made me contemplate the type of response I should have to students who ask that question. I have gone through a few which I've listed here along with some commentary:

• "Your best chance of getting the best possible grade is to get a perfect score." - I'm not happy with this because it brings the grade into focus, and not the act of learning.
• "Just do the best you can." - While this is better, I don't think it demonstrates to the students that I care. Instead, this sort of sidesteps the question and doesn't give a helpful response (of course they will do the best they can).
• "Does it matter?" - It's getting closer. A question puts the ball back in their court to try to justify why they care. I'm not quite happy with it because I know the answer. It matters because they care about their grade.
  
• "Would it change anything if I told you?" - This is the best answer I have so far. It puts the responsibility on them to look at their question in a different light. I'm not denying the importance that they have put on their grade (as misplaced as I believe it is), but I am leading them to realize that this question is ultimately unhelpful to them.
  

I won't have to face this question for about 5-6 months, so I'll probably put these thoughts on the back-burner for now.

I know my son can't read...

Here's a story from one of my high school teachers. I think it demonstrates how some people have a poor sense of what it means to get an education.

Every student must pass a semester of civics in order to graduate from high school. Because everyone must pass this class, it's not particularly hard. Not everyone will get an A in it, but everyone who works at it should be able to get out with a passing grade. There was a particular student who was failing this class. The teacher called up the student's mother to talk to her about what's going on, and to encourage her to encourage him to put in the effort so that he can pass.

Initially, the mother tried to do some negotiating with the teacher, but the teacher would not budge. He refused (on principle) to give a student who was clearly failing the class a passing grade. After a while, the mother got exasperated with the teacher's position and said, "I know my son can't read, but I want him to have a high school diploma."

To me, this is very sad. It's likely that the mother does not have much of an education herself based on this comment. It's likely that her son does not appreciate the education he has been getting because he still can't read, even though he's in high school. (That he got so far in the first place is a sad commentary on the state of education.)

A degree will only have meaning if it allows one to differentiate between those who are qualified and those who are not. It's a system that does draw a very clear line between the "haves" and "have nots," and some people don't like that. I'm not ignorant to the fact that social conditions have an effect on students and the levels of education they are able to attain. I'm in favor of outreach programs for low income students and other things to help them to navigate the educational system (especially higher education). However, "help" should never be turned into
a "giveaway." The students must still demonstrate that they have the knowledge and the skills appropriate for the degree. Otherwise, all you do is treat a symptom without providing any real help to cure the problem.