Learning Without the Pressure of Grades
For my final blog post of the semester, I will be talking about a radical idea: school without grades. Allow me to preface this by saying, I know grades are an integral part of our education system, and are needed to track peoples performance. On top of that, I can think of no method that would be a better replacement for grades.
That being said, imagine a school where you didn't lose sleep stressing over a test, or what grade you'll get on a paper. I always try to take classes that seem interesting to me, and about topics I want to learn. Still, most of the time I find myself not enjoying my learning because it isn't learning. It's a test. Subjects that I would normally enjoy I've ended up hating because instead of learning about things I have to memorize stupid details like what port hyptertext transfer protocols run through (port 80). Who cares? In my ideal world students would learn for the sake of wanting to know something, and teachers would teach what they think students should know, not to teach some test. I understand that in many classes skills are needed that haave to be simply memorized, but it comes to a point of overkill. I was talking to my dad who is a gastrointerolgist, and he told me he never once used anything from the hundreds of hours he put into learning organic chemistry as an undergrad. I know this post is kind of a rant, but its something that has always bothered me about our education system. I wish we could learn just to learn, not learn just to test.
That being said, imagine a school where you didn't lose sleep stressing over a test, or what grade you'll get on a paper. I always try to take classes that seem interesting to me, and about topics I want to learn. Still, most of the time I find myself not enjoying my learning because it isn't learning. It's a test. Subjects that I would normally enjoy I've ended up hating because instead of learning about things I have to memorize stupid details like what port hyptertext transfer protocols run through (port 80). Who cares? In my ideal world students would learn for the sake of wanting to know something, and teachers would teach what they think students should know, not to teach some test. I understand that in many classes skills are needed that haave to be simply memorized, but it comes to a point of overkill. I was talking to my dad who is a gastrointerolgist, and he told me he never once used anything from the hundreds of hours he put into learning organic chemistry as an undergrad. I know this post is kind of a rant, but its something that has always bothered me about our education system. I wish we could learn just to learn, not learn just to test.
Interesting viewpoint. I personally agree about learning without the pressure of grades. Nowadays, our GPAs seem to define us more than anything we will ever know - at least as it pertains to our starter jobs. However, I do recognize the need to measure performance, so we know how much we are actually learning. Maybe the true solution lies in corporations and other employers to stop caring about grades and be more holistic in their assessment of job candidates. I can only hope for this reality someday, but at least now, we can P/NC some classes.
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