I have mixed feelings. At a school like Harvard, you can genuinely get a class full of geniuses, each of whom hands in a brilliant essay. But should each of them receive an “A?” Would that reward them for being brilliant before even arriving at Harvard? And if so, is Harvard saying it has nothing else to teach them? On the other hand, if you spread the grades onto a normal curve, is it really fair to give even the worst essay in the class an “F” if it was genuinely brilliant but less so than the best? I think we have to accept that grades are an imperfect system and that there are bigger issues involved, including adjusting for the quality of the students, and the desire to motivate students to achieve beyond their current abilities. Overall, I think concern about grade inflation at colleges and universities is overblown, but the problem in grade schools and high schools is huge. I think it is criminal that students who can barely add or read are getting passing or even exceptional grades and graduating high school with a 5th grade education.