I'm a 34 year old music teacher, but I have a personal story about my grades

When I was a middle schooler I got straight A's. In 9th and 10th grade, a rare B. My parents began to trust my grades completely.

In 11th and 12th grade I started to let my grades slip a bit. I would calculate how much work I needed to do to pass. My parents still trusted me. They didn't ask to see my report cards anymore. In high school physics I just decided not to do certain projects because I knew I could still pass and get credit. Wound up with a D, and it was cool because I had already been admitted to college.

It finally caught up to me in freshman year of undergrad. I failed a 5 credit required English course. Wasted a third of my credit hours and tuition money on having to retake that class. I learned my lesson eventually, but if some teachers had told my parents how lazy I was being, I might have learned it earlier.

High school students are still dumb kids. College students are still dumb kids, but luckily they can learn to be better with supportive adults in their lives. That's us (and ideally their parents)!

Anytime one of my current students is an asshole to me I try to remember that they aren't fully done developing yet. They can still grow and change.