I've already earned the grade by working hard for the past 5 months. It's human nature to provide preferential treatment to those you like over those you dislike. I happen to have good relationships with my teachers, and I'm often rewarded for such things. In English, I come in late nearly every day and nothing is ever said. She refers to me as "Mr. President"; I have the second highest grade in her class, though I hardly do any work. I also continue to outperform my peers on papers. Yesterday I turned in a paper 2 weeks late and when I handed it to her she said "You are a great man." I apologized for the lateness and explained my writers block. I doubt I'll lose points, and if I do I'm sure she'll be lenient. (Last year I always got points off for late work, but others didn't..btw) She knows I need to maintain my A to ensure acceptance into Hampden-Sydney, and I doubt she'll let me down (unless I completely bomb the exam...) She's a really knowledgeable and nice teacher, to everyone it seems. Though with her I do think I receive slight favorable treatment, but I also think she would do that to most everyone.
In contrast, in my world history class (freshman level) our teacher retired earlier this year. Her replacement is young and I haven't really built a good relationship with her yet. The other day she told me (after about a month) that if I continue to arrive late (something that was never reprimanded by my former teacher) then I will be written up. I had a good relationship with my former teacher (her son's 1st choice was HSC so that made for many conversations which led to her taking interest in me.) However now I do not have my "senior perks" with this teacher, even though I have an extremely high A. This proves my point about merit not being the only thing that matters.
Essentially my point is that, yes, partial treatment does occur in all aspects of life. Instead of wining about it, maybe get a better personality. I don't make any special effort to receive any perks that I get, it's just how I act day to day that makes my teachers like me. I don't ask for any of these 'perks' nor do I expect them. The same thing is happening with Hampden-Sydney right now. My transcript certainly shows that I'm under qualified for admissions, but I have the entire Admissions Office pulling for me and really wanting me at their school. I did this not through making excuses for my grades or anything, but through writing them letters and making good impressions in person. They see that my character and determination makes up for fooling around in my younger years. In fact, the other day I met an alumni at my HS's basketball game...and now he's making phone calls to the college pulling for me. It's all about how you interact with people, and if you can't take advantage of it then I'm sorry..but no matter how much you "earn" something you're still going to be beat out if you can't talk as well as the next guy, it just won't happen. Also I still hold my ground in that my psychology exemption is nothing more than a hard-earned reward.
And, alright, I'll concede that the new years thing was partly wrong. She thought it was cute though, apparently...so I worry not.