Before you throw my opinion out of the window, claiming that I am merely a lazy student, i’d ask you to think about the question for a second: do grades really improve learning? Could it be possible that they harm it?
Supposedly, the argument for the use of grades is merely evaluation, but if it is, why are grades used in universities? Why is so much pressure and importance put into a mere evaluation? Sure, it’s useful when wanting to take only those with higher academic performances, but it also limits the academic freedoms of the teachers, and ultimately creates a system that centers around the wrong thing.
Let’s start from what is usually done at the start of class: checking the homework. Have you noticed how much homework you get, and how (in some classes) much of it seems watered-down and redundant to your class? the fact is that lots of the homework system is a bastard child of the grade system.
Sure, homework can be very useful. Essays, proofs, research, critical thinking, projects. However, it often happens that teachers are forced, because of the fact that they know all students are supposed to get the highest grade possible, homework designed to repeat what is said in class in a manner of near-thoughtless drudgery.
Yes, we again see the appeal to the lowest common denominator, but this time in a system that takes upon itself the patronage of knowledge and thinking. Each person might be quite able at understanding a subject, but try to find the understanding that they all share and poof! you are left with practically nothing.
As this hypothetical class progresses, the teacher hands out a test, and it is a multiple choice test. Multiple choice tests, aren’t they fun? How much does your score in a multiple choice test correlate with your understanding?
a. quite a lot
b. enough
c. not necessarily that much
d. both a and c
e. none of the above
If you chose c, you are probably right. however, does that show that you know why it is c? that you even understood the question? Often times multiple choice tests can be passed by using methods of eliminative logic instead of knowledge or understanding of the subject. Besides, how can you at all express understanding by choosing an answer from a list?
All this was known to teachers for quite a while now, and yet they continue to hand out multiple choice tests, why? because they are easy to grade. If grades were treated as evaluation instead of as achievement, multiple choice tests, and possibly timed tests in general, would be tossed out of the window for what it is: A worthless evaluation that has nothing to do with understanding of the subject.
But that is not the main problem. The main problem is looking at what is supposed to be only a reflection of true achievement as the actual achievement, and the consequential pressure on both students and teachers to conform to standards of mediocrity.
Sorry, I forgot what I was saying. The jist of it was that grades are all about careers, which are all about money. Remember those career choice booklet things that we had to do little quizzes in occasionally? And all this Career Day stuff? Careers. None of this is about understanding anything. That’s just something on the side for anyone interested. It’s really about conforming to some little career pathway that is determined by which subject you can get the best grades in and settling in with that. That’s where all this “mediocrity” comes from.
— Noah Glaser Oct 5, 21:23 #
Here’s my FOS tangent, because it kind of fits: This is something I talked about a bit over summer—you can do the assignments in FOS without problem. Maybe you think it’s busywork. Maybe you get a little stuck in your brain. But never complain that you didn’t learn anything, because you get just as much out as you put in.
Obviously, there are many more students than can be examined individually and ranked with their own personal scale. So you do the work that helps build a skill, and in return the State recognizes that you’ve done work and you’re not a complete backbirth. Seems like a simple tradeoff for a smoother society.
In your own community (and here that does include your teachers), your real aptitude will show. It might not be marked in a little book, but does that matter?
— Matt Hampel Oct 11, 19:56 #
Teachers know that not all high school kids are going to be able to understand matirial. If the grades in their classes show that kids aren’t learning, they will be fired. So, dumb down the matirial and get a paycheck. I’m not saying that this is the sole motivation for teachers, and a lot of them are confident enough to challenge their students, but they do have to eat.
— anneka goss Jan 16, 22:45 #
— Noah Glaser Jan 31, 18:48 #
Every one of us has things to offer in our lives to others. Oftentimes, the only thing standing between a person and a bright future is belief that that future is unattainable. I have seen people turned off by how huge a goal seems. For example, when they are in an athletic competition they get scared out of their mind of pushing hard to achieve a goal or standard they have set for themselves. The truth is, in athletics the standards are not set in competitions, they are set in practice. You set your practice standards high, and once you get to a competition you push as hard as you possibly can, not thinking about the results. Practice prepares your body for that. My point? School and the education system should be the same. The standards for life should be set in the classroom.
Grades do not define you, but they do say a little something about your work ethic and how you push yourself. The significance of this is that a work ethic and being able to challenge yourself is probably the #1 combination of traits you want in the work place. Do you want somebody who runs a few errands and says, “All right, I’ve done my duty to society. Now I’ll wait for somebody to call me out again.” or somebody who offers to do jobs, does their jobs well, motivates others, and speaks well? All of this ties into how the education system works. They do want the schools to be able to prepare you to do the latter, so they attempt to access schools by giving them standardized tests.
I think that a simple solution is actual examinations by an elected board of students and inspectors who are known for the kind of characteristics that define a successful person that live in the community, and the state holding an election for a panel of people who review these reports (which includes actually speaking to the people who investigated and the chosen students) to determine whether or not a school is functioning well. If the cause is deemed to be the educators and the fact that the school is infiltrated by incapable, ignorant adult individuals, the school should have reinforcements sent in from area universities.
If necessary, those people should be trained in dealing successfully with students who often try to skip the education process by not getting rid of them, but motivating them to succeed just as the current “better” students do, and letting them know that they care.
Oh yes, and I would like to add that I think homework that reviews what is said in class can function as notes that are extremely helpful in understanding anything. I myself have found recently in the classes where I constantly read and reread my homework from current and past units and chapters, I really began to understand how each concept fit into the other.
I will leave you with that.
— Sierra M Apr 27, 11:12 #
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