OGD - Obsessive Grades Disorder

It seems like every period someone's asking me questions for their stat class surveys. I've been asked questions from "Which schedule do you like the best?" to "Do you feel like you get enough energy from school lunches?" Today, I was asked questions about classes, grades, and how I spend my time.

Before she started questioning me, she told me that the questions were personal and that I can stop answering them whenever.  This made me a bit weary of the survey, but I knew she needed many people's answers, and if its an invasive survey she won't get any, so I decided to continue.

The first question she asked was what classes I'm taking and what phases they are, and for a copy of my schedule so she could verify my answers.  She started her apologizing (which continued throughout the survey), but I didn't see what the big deal was about my schedule.

Then she asked what grades I had in my classes, and her apologizing increased substantially. I really didn't see what the big deal was - my grades aren't very good, but I really don't see why grades matter. Grades are just a number imposed by someone who thinks they know everything to see how much of their knowledge you share.  Why does society try to give a quantitative number to something so qualitative? We're raised from Kindergarten to try to get an A in everything we do: You didn't color inside the lines? B-; You forgot the "±" sign after you took the square root? B+; you missed a half-note in your recital? C.  Our society, as well as many others around the world, is obsessed with grades, and it does no good for students or the future.  Its easy to procrastinate for a test then cram at the last minute and get an A, but the knowledge is immediately forgotten after the test to make room for the next information to cram.  Why should it matter if everyone in the school has a high GPA, but no one actually retains the knowledge?