Abolishing grades
Abolishing gradesAs our country moves into the twenty-first century, it must closely evaluate its current system of doing things. Where better to start looking than at its future, today's students? However, an evaluation of today's students would probably not be positive. This is because students fear of failure and fear of getting bad grades. A simple solution to this problem would be to eliminate grades altogether and to reinstate the power of learning to gain knowledge and character, not to get a letter grade. Abolishing grades would work toward eliminating the apathy and lack of learning currently displayed by most students.
For a long time, achieving good grades and nothing more, has been the ultimate goal in a student's academic life. This is a standard that was set centuries ago by "grownups" who needed a way of ranking students based solely on letters or numbers. Individuality and creativity were pushed aside so colleges, universities, graduate schools and employers would be able to judge their candidates. In the text, Celebrating Diversity, a short segment called, " Add Teaching To High-Risk Jobs," writes, "You can have an 'A'." Students' minds are generally focused on getting an "A," so they usually don't think about learning, rather they constantly render on the "A." Many candidates' acceptance are based on their academic and test standards and nothing more. Grades are thought to be the most accurate way to judge individuals and schools provide testing and grades that are utilized by institutes of higher learning and also by potential employers. These institutions tend to accurately judge someone based solely on a system that encourages memorization and underhanded tactics instead of learning for the sake of benefiting oneself and one's future. That is why students are subjected to cheating, which will not help them in the long run. "This isn't fair. I was treated as a non person..." Judging a candidate through merely reviewing the paper works, does not show their character and style, which is more important than any test scores could ever prove. That is why universities, graduate schools, and employers should devise their own methods of comprehensive testing to replace grades, that would more accurately show an individual's abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. These tactics may more accurately judge a person for who they really are. Also, eliminating grades would allow a person's unique qualities to dominate instead of just the cumulative GPA or class rank, as in now the case.
The abolishing of student grades would allow students to break free from conformity. Eliminating grades would allow students to actually learn instead of just memorizing facts for a test and soon forgetting the information completely. "Good" students in a grade-based society tend to conform to just getting good grades, not truly learning, in order to have a chance at...
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