grades

As a student, I never minded being graded. I’m sure there are teachers who grade unfairly, and maybe I’ve been lucky with my teachers growing up, but I can’t remember ever being surprised with a particularly poor grade. That’s not to say I haven’t received them. My point is that I’ve always had a good sense of my own understanding and the quality of my work. If I ever received, say, 60% on a test or assignment, I may have been disappointed, but only with myself. I would have known that I hadn’t done my best work going into it. Conversely, I think some students live in a bit of denial when they complain about poor grades, potentially refusing to either recognize or acknowledge that they didn’t put in the time and energy required to achieve the grades they wanted. But more than anything else, I think that’s more a symptom of grades being implemented poorly. Grades are probably overemphasized in general, and the culture surrounding them, ie good grades = future success, bad grades = impending doom, is a little ridiculous. We should instead be emphasizing students developing a self awareness of their learning progress for their own sake. At the end of the day, I think we want to educate students on how to pursue their own interests, equipping them with skills to self-assess, direct their own personal growth, and “succeed” in areas of their own choosing. 

There are certainly students who just see school as needlessly judgemental and super transparent in weaponizing grades as the primary means of forcing conformity (or something along those lines). I think that’s pretty valid. Maybe grades should be an opt-in sort of deal? They do seem to do more harm than good in a lot of cases, promoting a negative opinion of schooling. I definitely bought into school growing up. As a result, grades made sense to me as an objective-seeming measure of my effort. But not everyone has that same relationship with school, and I do think we need to be cognizant of the fact that not all students are going to want to engage with grades in this way. A grading system offers some kind of system with which to measure and monitor student effort, ability, and progress. The way we use grades as a society may certainly be flawed, but I don’t think the idea is inherently flawed. Instead, I think the culture surrounding education needs to change. We need to de-emphasize getting into university to get a “good job.” Folks need to realize education is about supporting personal growth and promoting the interests of unique individuals. I believe that if we can do that effectively, the rest will fall into place. I think there is probably a way to repurpose grades to that end. Again, I think it worked for me. That being said, it definitely depends on teachers, schools, parents, and society in general, having a slightly more enlightened attitude about grades.