While my parents were pretty strict, for me good grades were a means to an end... a scholarship. I desperately wanted to go to college (no one ever had in my family) and the only way that was going to happen was to get a scholarship. I didn't always learn a lot in high school, which I regret, but then I WAS a teenager. But I did get the scholarship, and managed to keep it through college. Thank goodness. I learned so so so much in college....really helped me catch up.