Bleh…grades. Sometimes I wonder if we are our grades. Parents care about them. Colleges care about them. We care about them, sometimes to the extent that a B could make us feel like a failure or hurt our self-worth. But why do they have to matter so much?
No matter how hard a student works in a class, no matter how much they actually learn and understand by the end of the school year, a poor job on a project or test is enough to push an A down to a B, a B to a C, or, in some cases, a D to an F. How can anyone expect a tiny little letter to give an accurate report of how much a student learned? If someone comes into Spanish I as a fluent speaker, he won’t learn anything at all, but he’ll definitely get an A. On the other end, a student with a learning disability might put in an enormous amount of effort into the class and learn a lot about the material, but still only pull out a C.
Good grades are given to certain types of learners: most commonly, those who can sit still and memorize information for a test. I don’t know about anyone else out there, but in some classes (Chemistry? Biology? Any science class I’ve ever had?) I’ve worked insanely hard to memorize material and do well on the exams, only to forget it weeks later. What’s the point of spending 8+ hours in school each day if the only purpose is to process material through one’s head, like a factory? That’s not enjoyable; that’s not even effective. It’s no wonder kids don’t care about school with a grading system like this – the black and white, no-room-for-error technique doesn’t even accurately convey progress and achievement.
In a perfect world, we wouldn’t even have grades, but instead teachers that were willing to write up detailed and personalized reports of how a student grew and improved, what his or her strengths were, and what he or she needed more work on. I’m sure some teachers would be willing to do this, but colleges wouldn’t be willing to read them. What university that gets tens of thousands of applicants a year would be cool with sitting down and analyzing page after page of personalized reports? It would be ridiculous.
Still, that doesn’t mean that we can’t be idealistic and wish for a system without the inflexibility of grades. It would be great to have a more introspective, personalized way of learning that focused more on discovery and progress. In a society of time-pressed and lazy people, however, cold, clear-cut letters are the easiest way (if not the most innacurate) to measure achievement. And while most teachers and students would likely be fine with an alternative learning style, administrations and colleges wouldn’t. Unfortunately, seeing that most of us want to go to college, we’re going to have to pander to their wants.
…I think that was more that four hundered words. Dang.
I completely agree with what you are saying. I hate the pressure that people such as your parents and college admissions officers put on you to get good grades that sometimes simply reflect the teacher’s personal preference (not you Ms. Scow, I’m just saying there are some corrupt teachers out there who will grade the exact same work and give one a higher grade because they like them more). I think that grades should more reflect the person instead of their testing skills or how well they can memorize information temporarily. However, I also agree with you on the point that I don’t see the system changing anytime soon because it would be too time consuming and people would probably be unwilling to change.
Comment by b31292 — October 22, 2008 @ 9:08 pm
I agree–its stupid. But we have to deal with them to get into colleges and everything else.
Comment by Noah — October 25, 2008 @ 6:07 pm
I agree with you two too. Just like Emily said, how can one little, tiny worthless letter represent our whole life and explains what we did for a year? That’s so stupid how colleges only look at that one thing and say a few words, “alright, this one’s in” “nope, this one’s out” And yes there are some teachers what Zak had said they do sometimes give a better grade just because their families are poor, or they’re kind, what so ever… I had that happen to me last year with spanish 3. it was a group work and my partner and I wrote our paper and printed out two copies of the same thing and I had gotten a 3 and she had gotten a 4. later for an overall grade i passed with barely an ‘A’ and she passed with a ‘C’. it’s just ridiculous how teachers can be (not concerning you Mrs. Scow). not only the college officals are crazy, so are the teachers who actually give you the grade that doesn’t even match with you.
Comment by Steve — October 26, 2008 @ 12:57 am