We all know that kid who boosted his grade ten percent just by bringing in an absurd amount of cans for the food drive. By allowing students to buy their grades, teachers change the motive behind the food drive: students should be participating because they want to help people, not because they want to simply boost their grades. It isn’t fair that grades can be bought because it gives an advantage to the fortunate kids who can buy more cans, whereas the less fortunate kids can work extremely hard and get a worse grade because they don’t have the same opportunity.

Some people work really hard for their grades, and then they see people that slack off in class but have the same grade as them because they bought an inordinate amount of food. To me, buying extra credit isn’t fair because some people don’t work hard in class but end the semester with a good grade because they bought cans for the food drive. Not only is this not fair to the kids who actually try for their grade, but it’s not fair to the kids who can’t afford to buy cans.

The extra credit opportunity is irrelevant to the less fortunate kids because they might not be able to afford to buy the cans they need to increase their grades. They don’t have the same opportunity as some of the other kids that can afford to boost their grade a whole letter up. To me, this is a very unfair way to earn a grade. It also changes the meaning of the food drive.

The purpose of the food drive is to donate food to homeless shelters and to help people that can’t always afford to buy food. By offering extra credit, the meaning behind the food drive has changed from helping others to getting a good grade. I think it’s fine to offer extra credit, but not so much that it can lift your grade a whole letter. If you’re participating in the food drive, do it to help other people, not yourself.