Should the grading system be eliminated? If we said goodbye to A, B, C, D, and F (sometimes E) we could finally liberate ourselves from the handcuffs of the letter grade, we could enable ourselves to enjoy learning for the sake of it. It could eliminate the foundation for a competitive environment, which can be a good or bad thing; people could utilize their already competitive natures to give them a goal to achieve higher than they can, but could lead to others to be discouraged if things don't go as planned. Another way of looking at this is that the grading system gives us a way to determine whether we screwed something up really badly or if we clearly understand the material. This could also encourage students to become underachievers and avoid personal responsibilities and prefer to slack off which could lead to unpreparedness in their college lives or future careers. What do you think? Should we keep the grading system the way it is or completely get rid of it? or should schools implement a new form of grading for students?
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Should We Get Rid of the Grading System?
Ever poured in immense and potentially sweaty amounts of time and dedication into your studies all for one test, essay, quiz. etc. just to end up getting a D or worse, an F? Or have you been in an situation where you do nothing at all, not even read single word from your notes and still ace that test? Does the grading system really matter? It goes without a doubt that students of our day and in age submit themselves to be governed under the pressure of the letter grade, some even take it a step further and let it dictate their intelligence. We carry one big burden of stress just for that A+ but it's also proven to be our biggest motivator to excel in a school environment.
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I think we should keep the grading system. The biggest reason for this is, most likely more students would slack off since there is no real, set in stone measurement of how good they are doing for them. Yes, there are a lot of slackers right now and no one really knows how to deal with them, but a measurement for this is still better. With no letters, people will one, not see how they are really doing, and two, will probably be more okay with missing some assignments if they do not want to do it. In other words they won’t want to finish that one little assignment that would’ve bumped up their grade with the current grading system. We’ve also been doing this system for so long and it hasn’t been necessarily bad; it works, for the majority. Besides, with either system there would still be stress for the students who want to be successful, it doesn’t matter whether or not there is a letter that symbolizes that.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the comment above, but also, although the grading system isn't perfect, it is still a great way to gauge the student's capabilities. In the eyes of colleges, shifting through thousands of unknown students and deciding who should get to enroll is already a very tough decision with little to base them off of, and if grades didn't exist then it would be the same as randomly selecting students.
ReplyDeleteI am uncertain of whether or not we should get rid of the grading system but I am certain that the reason students feel so lack luster about their grades is because the school system itself is broken, rather than the grading system. Have you ever felt like a lot of your time in school is wasted because the lessons are either unfocused or too quick for you to keep up with? Maybe you feel like you spend too much time at school and too much time at home doing school work and it is really killing your morale? I think the answer to the inconsistency of grading is not to "fix" the grading system, but rather to fix the schooling system. Maybe we could have a shorter school day to boost student and teacher morale. This would allow more time for teachers to plan their lessons out to be more focused and well-paced so that we may actually learn faster when it comes time to teach. Maybe we could even switch to block schedule permanently to have longer classes that could be more focused (while still having shorter school days). To be honest, as a person who went to a school who had block schedule permanently I can safely say that it was much more beneficial and satisfying than Mayfair's schooling schedule. That is just my opinion though. All I mean to propose is that there is not a problem with our grading scale but with our school system as a whole and we should focus on fixing that which is the core problem, not the surface problem.
ReplyDeleteI think that when I go to school, the only thing that motivates me to do well is that A or A+. If I wanted an A it would push me to be the best student that I can be and if that means studying for hours then I guess it'll have to do. It also make my mom happy (:.
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