Grand Avenue by Mike Thompson for March 29, 2024

I wondered, too.

Maybe ‘E’ means ‘Enough’, already!

We used to have A to E grades, ‘E’ being a failing grade. But some kids managed to gaslight their parents that ‘E’ meant excellent. So F for Fail replaced E grades.

I went to a middle school in Ohio that used “E” for failure.

Best answer I’ve ever heard!

I lived a while where they used E for fail. Another place 1 was good & 5 was fail. Transferring transcripts was tricky.

I had a teacher who gave an E if you turned in the work, but it just wasn’t enough to pass. He would give an F and TAKE AWAY POINTS if you didn’t even bother to do it. I doubt he could get away with that today…

That’s what we heard from our teachers while correcting our papers. “EEEEEEEEEEE”

E is for excuses!

I received an E in grad school, it represented withdrawal from the class after the drop deadline while passing the class (I’d had a car motorcycle accident).

At the schools I went to, we could get an E, not an F though.

I’m old enough to remember the grading system before the current one. It consisted of three grades, “E” for excellent, “S” for satisfactory, and “U” for unsatisfactory. So, moving to the new grading system and continuing with an “E” grade would have made it go from the best to the worst, which would be quite confusing. Thus, the “E” grade was discontinued and replaced with the more acceptable “F.”

Looking for the E for Effort. Should be a grade. Maybe equal to C+

Perhaps because nobody would say “Ee-lunk”!

Don’t forget the saying “I’ll have to give him an E for Effort”. To me I felt that this should mean that the receiver of the grade didn’t do well enough to pass, but he obviously tried really hard but honestly just couldn’t do well enough. Also that would distinguish the student from the slackers who deserved an “F”. I never thought that this was in any way official, but that it should be!

I’ve long wondered why ‘E’ has never been used as a letter grade myself.

She suggests a good, if bizarre, reason.

“In the 1930s, as the letter-based grading system grew more and more popular, many schools began omitting E in fear that students and parents may misinterpret it as standing for “excellent.” Thus resulting in the A, B, C, D, and F grading system. " – Reader’s Digest.

E – actually used to be a grade.