Re: William Trial (4/27)

In his latest post Bill talked about the grading system and asked, "How could we deal with such a system and another more important question is how would this function in education at all levels?"

Whether a Professor has a doctorate or a PhD in their field, they are considered a professional for that field. If you don't like the way a professor grades then don't take classes with them. It's as simple as that. And if you don't like any of them, then transfer schools, the whole point of why your here is to get an education right? So if you feel like you aren't getting the proper one, go somewhere where you can.

The major problem with high schools is that they are curriculum based. Teachers often rush concepts and lessons so that they can teach all of them instead of giving as much time that's needed for a certain subject. But, this isn't high school, the content isn't curriculum based, and all teachers grade differently here. For example, I know that Tim Jay, at least in his upper level classes, doesn't give grades until the end because he compares everyone's work and bases your on rank. This is a system most professors don't use, and one that I personally don't like, but that's why I dropped his class. Like Bill said, they give you a syllabus that states how they are going to grade you and you have time to drop that class. I can understand someone appealing a grade if the professor messed up with the given rubric, but other than that I don't understand. If you do your assignments and study then you'll do fine. As Silliman says, "the grade will take care of itself."

Some types of classes, you cannot grade on ability, but on progress. Like gym classes for example, some people just aren't as fit as the others, they can't run as fast and they can't lift as much. That doesn't mean that they're not trying they just had a bad predisposition, but if they improve, then that shows that they are really trying. When I was in high school all my gym teachers liked me, not because I ran the fastest mile, because believe me, I wasn't even close, but I always improved and tried my hardest. That's all you have to do with anything, just try your hardest and if your hardest isn't good enough then you aren't doing it right or whatever it is your doing just isn't right for you. And if you do believe it's right for you than keep trying, and you'll get there because you can have anything within reason if you wast it bad enough.

As for Jules, like I said in class, if he put in as much effort into the class as he did in that letter than he wouldn't have had a problem in the first place. He is a teacher, he probably had to spend a lot of his time on grading papers and correcting tests, so he couldn't put in as much effort into the class as he would have liked.

So to answer Bills question, if we got rid of the grading system we would have to base people off of other things for graduate and undergraduate programs. Community service, SAT scores, after-school activities, admission essays, internships, letters of recommendations etc. They would look at everything (besides grades) that they do now. They would probably look very intensely at the letters of recommendations from teachers/professors and SAT scores. As for functioning for all levels, I guess they would have to do some sort of rewards system for all the students who do there work and do good on the tests that don't really count.

Grades are important, but they aren't everything. What's the most important is how much you learn. But how is a biology teacher going to know that without giving you a test? How will a philosophy professor know that without having discussions? How will a math teacher know that without seeing you do examples? Grading isn't meant to hurt anyone's feelings or to praise a suck-up, it's to show you how well you did based on the rubric. It's to show the teacher how much you learned. It's for competition. Face it, if you weren't graded on your classes how much effort would you really put them? And because you aren't being graded and not putting effort in, you aren't going to learn very much. Therefore grading is important for your learning.

I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but the only people who would want to get rid of the grading system are the people who get bad grades. And because they get bad grades they won't be able to change the grading system because they aren't smart enough to get hired as an educational director (or whoever it is that decides those things). Do you think that this is true?