When I was a kid, I'd usually get As or B's. This other kid told me whenever he got an A, he'd get $20 each. I said to my mom, "why don't I get anything for my As?"

She said, "Because [other kid] is kind of stupid, so it's a big deal when he gets one"

This was not a satisfying answer.

I also remember in late middle school, we were in the computer lab (I'm old) given a sort of free form assignment to do something for whatever book we'd read. I made a basic little game in BASIC (I'm still old). Some kid wrote the book title in WordArt. The teacher gushed over it, and I got a "that's nice" for my fully operational game. Infuriating. Had a huge impact on my respect for authority and academic career, probably more than warranted.

My therapist tried to make me see the teacher's point of view. Kyle was always fucking up and off task, so rewarding him when he's not a fuckup for once must have felt like a big payoff. But I was always good, and she didn't really understand what I was going on about, so she didn't engage with it.

For a long time, I was a middling student. 65-75% grades, with the occasional 80 in something I was interested in. It's unbelievable how much that limits you when you want to go further, or apply for a bursary or the like.

Part of it for me, was that I was slotted in the lower stream/special needs stream during high school. This was largely because I was bored to tears in school, had a ton of home drama going on at that time.

I did a pile of upgrading, and ended up graduating with 150 of the 100 credits needed. I managed to get accepted into a smaller collage, transfer to the university, I wasn't exceptional at really anything until my 4th year of B.Sc., where the specialized topics came in and I could fill my boots. I worked hard, though, which was all I really had going for me.

I pulled up my socks enough to get into grad school, and welp, here I am 10 years later (15 years experience in my field) doing what I set out to do.

There is no single 'American' school system.

Each state makes it's own rules, and the local counties all have their own 'Board of Education.'

Two high schools can be five miles apart and have totally different curriculums. One might have a $5 million computer lab and the other might have a $5 million football stadium.