Grades, Learning, Success...What's Really Important Here?

As I am reading John Tagg's article "Why Learn? What We May Really Be Teaching Students", I feel like my Honor's Orientation class is returning to a subject brought up in the beginning of the semester.  Back then, we were questioning the definition and measures of success and wondering what really matters in college: grades or learning.  I believe learning is more important, but I think college professors typically use grades to measure how much the students have thus far learned.  From what I have seen, the Honors Program at JBU places more value on learning than grades--for which I am grateful--but what about the non-honors courses I am required to take?  And scholarships like the Arkansas Challenge?  I have to keep a certain GPA score to maintain those scholarships.  How do I keep my focus on learning when I need to make the grades that keep the scholarship that made it possible for me to learn at JBU?  What is the balance between qualitative learning and quantitative learning as Tagg mentions in his article?