Meet Steven; he's learning that some have it, some don't.

     Steven was born within a few months of Tom in the same year; this placed him in the same grade at school.  At twelve, Steven is in the sixth grade, too.  Steven has also learned through experience that how he performs in school has no impact on his grade level.  Each year Steven gets older and each year Steven moves to the next grade.  Yet, Steven's school experiences have been very different from Tom's.
     When the year end tests came along in third grade, Steven also noticed how important they were to his teacher; but when they were over and summer came, he gave them little thought.  Steven never felt pressure at school or at home.  He enjoyed school; neither tests nor grades ever gave him any stress.  As fourth grade eased into fifth grade, and fifth into sixth, Steven never gave grades much conscious thought.  He was comfortable with how things seemed to proceed at school.  He never noticed much beyond the fact that he enjoyed his friends and teachers were friendly.  At home, Steven's Mom and Dad praised him and often told him that he was bright and would be able to do whatever he liked when he grew up.
     Steven did notice that during the year some students, like Tom, missed some of the fun stuff and stayed behind with the teacher.  Once or twice, Steven can remember one of the kids asking the teacher about that, but since Steven never stayed behind like Tom, he never gave it much thought.  Steven knew that school was easy for some and hard for others.  That's just the way things were.  Either way, he, Tom, and the rest of their classmates were still in the same grade together year after year.  They all arrived together in the morning and left together in the afternoon.  Some kids, like Steven, got grades like A or B, some didn't; that's just the way things are, right?  Some adults are bankers, some are barbers.  Some kids are into sports, some aren't.  Some kids go to college, some go to work at the supermarket.  To both Steven and Tom, it looked like it didn't seem to matter if they tried hard, or slacked off at school; one year looked pretty much like every other year.