Capable of more..

Today, went to the school to collect the report cards of the children. Varsha's teacher while giving the report card and her worksheets mentioned that she wanted to talk to me about something. She told me that varsha had not done too well in the last session. When, I looked at her sheets she seemed to have done well ... 21/25, 17/25 etc. I mentioned that to the teacher and she shook her head saying,'she is capable of much more'.
When I told her that all this was Varsha's efforts and I had very little to do with it, the teacher advised me to spend more time on her.
I left the school wondering and still wondering what is it about marks which is so important? If I had sat with her, made her study and prepared her for the tests with the same format.. she might have done well(as per the teacher) .. would it mean that she has understood concepts or would I be conditioning her to work in a certain way to get marks. If a child secures the required marks does it mean he understands what he has done. Even after so many changes happening around us, we are still not able to change our mindset, our conditioning. Why is marks the only criteria which defines whether a child is intelligent or not?
It is time that we change the way we look at things, change the way we think and also change the way we do things. The least we can do is to change the way we work with our children at home by giving them acceptance, freedom, allowing them to make mistakes with the hope that they will reach out and work for what they want from life.