Confidentiality on academic performance needs to be restored

Looking back on elementary school, I remember how confidential grades were. Even if I willingly attempted to share my score on something as innocent as a reading quiz, my teacher was always quick to remind me that “we don’t brag about our grades” to other students. At the time, I thought this was a pointless rule; any child would want to bask in the glory of an A with his or her friends.
In high school, teachers become much more liberal about sharing grades, but there is still a degree of confidentiality. I can understand when teachers disclose the highest and lowest scores when students are anxious or give their opinion on how the class preformed. However, when teachers reveal an individual student’s grade in front of the entire class, that’s going to the extreme. One may think that this is not a major issue—we are teenagers, after all. Can’t we handle the consequences when our classmates know our score on the latest test? The issue is that we don’t know the ones that can’t. Let’s face it: when the whole class knows you failed a quiz, it isn’t exactly the best emotional up-lifter for some. Regardless of whether students are emotionally hurt, it certainly puts students with subpar performance in an awkward situation. This is not to say that everyone will automatically ridicule you, but the feeling of having your grade revealed to the entire class is just a weird one.
Students who make relatively high grades are also the victims of this: if I get an A on a test and everyone else in the class fails, I don’t exactly want my grade to be shared with everyone. It may seem like I’m seeing the worst in people, thinking they will automatically hate someone for scoring highly on a test, or use an elementary school cliché, label them as a “teacher’s pet.” What’s worse than any possible blowback from fellow students, however, is simply the strange feeling, the lack of privacy, and for some, the hurt feelings that result.
I’m not saying that this is an issue of major importance, but it should be dealt with for courtesy’s sake. The only real solution is for teachers to be more considerate and conscious of how students might react. I can see the rationale a teacher might have: to motivate students to the point that they increase their efforts for the sake of not having a bad grade announced to the class. For some, however, I think the hurt can legitimately penetrate deep and can destroy the trust a student has in a teacher. The teacher-student relationship is a vital one, and in today’s world, it can’t afford to be weak.