Credit

Id Credisne Credibile?

Teachers should abolish gradebooks. Far too often I have witnessed a student rant over half of a quarter of a percentage point on a pop quiz; furthermore, some students will not participate in class activities should they not receive some sort of "extra credit." This quantitative system is a travesty -- it attempts to assign numbers and letters to work which reflects many more facets of thought and knowlege than an eighty-eight percent might represent. Yes, grades are a hoax; they can be likened to the little man in the pink section of the newspaper -- both methods of evaluation are largely inadequate. While a grade may give a general idea of a student's level of achievement, I find it hilarious that five months of a student's work could be summarized in one letter. Grading attempts to standardize that which is inherently not standard -- every course is graded differently, and, consequently, the same grade in two different courses might not necessarily represent the same level of work. Therefore, can grades be hailed as an adequate means of evaluation? Moreover, the folly does not merely lie in the grading system itself, but rather in the students who strive merely to achieve in terms of such fumeral symbols. Students who strive for credit deprive themselves of the joy of learning while worrying excessively about the vagabond standard.

"How much is this worth?" This question is heard far too much during the course of a school day. What students should realize is that an assignment should be worth as much as they value it themselves. Any assignment is "worth" as much as a given student chooses to invest in it. Students should not trouble themselves as to whether a term paper is "worth" ten percent of a course grade, or what not. Depending on the topic, that particular paper may be worth more or less to that student. Unfortunately, students have never abandoned this fettish for quantitative analysis, regardless of whether they have a propensity towards mathematics. It is not possible to levy the blame on one particular person or group; however, I speak to teachers in particular, those responsible for the evaluation of a student's achievements.

Teachers merely encourage the repugnant attitudes of students by maintaining a numerical assessment of a student's performance. I once asked a teacher if she had ever lost her gradebook; she said that she hadn't, but stated that the loss of a gradebook would not necessarily effect disaster -- a teacher should be aware of the general performance of each student and, therefore, specific numbers are not essential to grade calculation. It is unncessary to have numbers at all; teachers can assign students papers, give tests, and teach their syllabus without assigning each piece of work a concrete grade. In this fashion, students can value assignments as they choose. The teachers would read all of the student's work (in the case of math and science, evaluate) over the course of a semester and assign the student a grade based on overall performance, rather than a stict calculation. In math or science courses where a strict calculation might be necessary, the teachers would be wisest not to inform students of their "average," but rather return tests with suggestions on the concepts a student needs work on. The teacher might still hold a quantitative evaluation, but much more emphasis would be placed on the learning process, rather than whether one section of a question was "worth" one point or two.

What happened to the pleasure of learning? Have students become more passionate about half-points than about Catullus? The time has come at which teachers must abolish quantitative grading, or at least withold it from students, in hopes that students will value the learning process infinitely more than the value of a particular question. Without a grade to look at, students will not evaluate themselves at one glance; rather, they will be forced to reevaluate their work and prosper from the experience. It is important that students learn the correct approaches (there may be an infinite amount) to various challenges. However, is it really important for students to know how much their mistakes have "cost" them? In truth, mistakes are the only things which gain us anything, for we often forget that which we have always "known."

By Triumphus


This page created for The Subterranean Crusader by John W. Earl. Last modified January 28, 1996.