Summary
I am uncertain about how i feel about the grading system, i believe it have both its pros and cons. For me i personally believe the grading system is needed but i can see how it may affect others negatively. The grading system is a great way to keep track of your performance and achievements. If the grading system does not exist i feel it would be chaotic and students can easily go off track because nothing is motivating them to learn what they need to learn or even stay on course. The grading system was created to measure how much a person is learning and on the idea of evaluating and accountability but i can see where it can also impact students in a negative way, it can put a lot of pressure on students. I believe everyone have strength and weaknesses when it comes to education and to be failing because of weakness can be a little unfair. Also I realize that school might be more about structure than educating, we need a balance. I don’t think we should get rid of the whole entire grading system but i do believe it need fixing so we can have a balance that can be beneficial to different learning styles
Angela Dunne
I want to note how you consistently bring us back to the idea of balance. I think it’s so important and I look forward hearing more of your thoughts around this concept. I also want to write out the question you asked today when talking about the concept of justice, “but what are we fighting for” and in keeping with that, I want to ask: balance in service of what? If we maintain balance within an unfair system- is that balance in service of us or in service to the system itself? I think it may be the case that even a concept like balance needs to be understood within context (rather than in an abstract way). You also mentioned the importance of context today. I’m looking forward to your thoughts and for your further development of a definition of balance.
You refer back to the origin of grading as, “created to measure how much a person is learning and on the idea of evaluating and accountability” but the origins of the current A-F system are much more unjust- at its root, grading is a ranking mechanism developed to categorize students (not in service of the students but in service of the current system). However, I think that assessing learning and accountability, as you mentioned, are such important things. If we let ourselves imagine abandoning the grading system are there other ways to motivate and assess students in education- ways that don’t include the harms (you mentioned pressure and unfairness) of the current system?