Wanting to learn.

In CIS English today, something strange was brought up when Wertsch was discussing the reason for him being gone on Monday. It was a class that all of the CIS English teachers were required to go to to discuss literature and other intelligent topics along the lines of our class. As Wertsch was completing the story, somebody in the class asked "Is it an actual class, like do you get credit for it?" It eventually came down to the class just being a requirement for him to be able to teach the class. What I want to get at though is why does a credit signify a class?  I despise the fact that everybody is worried about credits and grades when I just want to come to school to learn about things I don't know.
      I see our school focused on test scores and nothing else. This draws back to the fact that grades have become far to big of our education system. I always thought that a good way to put it is "education if forced, learning is voluntary." So many nights of mine have been spent cramming for a test that I have the next day, simply because if it is not interesting to me, I will not care to learn it. Yes, I will put it in my temporary memory so i can do well on the test, but that is not something i do for me. My parents want to see good grades, my teachers want to see good, colleges want to see good grades, but that doesn't change the fact that I want to learn. Its not just mindless learning, I enjoy learning about things that give me a better understanding of the world, such as: chemistry, physics, literature and math.
     Sometimes I wish colleges were not looking at ACT scores or grades and the process was open to people who wanted to learn. Everyone could take the exact courses that they wanted to take in order to shape their own futures after maybe taking a bunch of minor classes in high school. I understand that this cannot work in today's society were everything is not based on specialties or desires because of money and limited talent, but I just want people to think about what school would be like if you came at your own will with your desired classes as your schedule instead of a grade based education.