Grades?

Our discussion about grades and their importance struck particularly interesting to me because this is something that I have always wondered about, but never thought was a valid argument because I have been brought up to believe that grades are important and heavily impact your future success. As for my opinion on the issue, I'm not entirely sure. I think there are plenty of smart people out there that don't try hard enough and therefore their grades reflect their effort. In that case, their grades would not reflect their intelligence, but they would reflect how much they learned if you are following the rule that you learn more if your put more effort in. As the course goes on, I will continue to think about this issue because now I realize that this is worth pondering and definitely a valid argument!