philisophical question for the day

So, obviously there are different ways of doing things, but my question is, can they be equal, or is one way always actually better than the other ways? Take for a simple example, going to school. People do it in many different ways. Even the people that are devoted to graduating, doing well, etc. One person may study to absorb, understand, and liken as much of the information as he can, in other words, do his best. Another person may study to get the grade, remember for the test, or do what needs to be done to get by. A person can do very well by this method--I know because I did it. I have lots of "school" skills--I could always study the night before and do really really well on a test. And I always knew just how much effort I had to put into something to get an A. (This reminds me of how we'd show my dad a report card and he'd look at the 97% or whatever, and he'd ask what percent we needed for the A, and we'd say 94%, and he'd say, Why did you bother with the other 3%? Now this was in jest, but it's the kind of thing I totally get.)
So you'd think that it's the person who really did their best that is the 'better' way, right? But what if the get-by person actually gets better grades than the person who did their best? Is it still the better way?
But anyway, it's not really school that I care about, or was thinking about when I started on this thread.
So I do know that everyone is different and comes from a different place. So different ways of doing things should be equally valid, maybe. Except mainly everyone is trying to become better--trying to reach perfection, if you will. So perfection is a point say up high, and everyone starts funneling toward it, and as they go higher into the funnel they get more and more alike. So, then maybe some ways are better--they are the higher, more perfect ways. Then again, if everyone is different, maybe there are different ways of being perfect. Except I don't really buy that exactly.
Take me for example, I'm sitting here writing random, non-understandable junk when I should be mopping my kitchen floor. My mother would NEVER be on the computer wasting time when there was a floor to mop. In fact, my mother would have mopped the floor six hours ago if this were her house. To tell the whole truth, she probably would have mopped the kitchen floor about four times between now and the last time I mopped it. But then, maybe she actually mops too much--I mean, there has to be a point where there's actually too much mopping, at the expense of other things. Perhaps I'm not so far wrong to spend my time in other good pursuits. Or perhaps both ways are just as good. So, maybe I am just rambling all this because I'm trying to figure out if I can excuse my unmopped floor by arguing that there are separate but equal ways of doing things.

Another question of a non-philisophical nature. Why do all of the pants of all of your kids get holes in the knees at the SAME time??