My Problems with the United States Grading Policy
-By: Name-Brand Handle.
I wrote this paper my Senior year of High School. It was one of those papers, where the teacher writes a thesis statement on the board, and you either argue for it or against it. I was the only person to argue against it. I think it went rather well, especially since everyone in the class agreed with me, except the teacher, of course.
It has been said that there are problems with the grading system used by the United States. It has also been said that our grading system does not accomplish any good purpose. The purpose of grades, as far as I have been told, is to represent a student's level of responsibility, their ability to perform academic tasks, follow directions, and in best case scenarios, demonstrate gained knowledge.
First of all, the school is not meant to teach responsibility, that is the parent's job. The student's parent is to teach their child to be responsible. Teaching one to be responsible can be done by either, making the child hold down a job, or giving them chores around the house, and supplying pay in the form of an allowance. These both teach time and money management, by making the child learn how to complete all things required of them, and how to purchase only what you need and can afford. Teaching responsibility is not the school's responsibility.
School is practice in how to perform academic tasks. Without knowing how to perform academic tasks, a pupil can not learn the principals behind the tasks. In the work force, not everything has immediate, visible results. School is a good practice in how to do this. A student's grades should not be based on his or her ability to perform these tasks. This is a case where the outcome demonstrates that the ability is there. If you can learn the theory behind the academic task, then you have learned what is required to apply it.
School is also good practice in following directions. You must be able to follow directions to a certain extent. There are certain circumstances in life that require you to follow directions to the "T", the legal profession is a good example of this. However, many other fields require a person to come up with the desired outcome from a preset, unchangeable circumstance. If a student is taught that you must do this, then that, and lastly this, then you discourage a student to think freely, and discover the way they work best to arrive at the desired outcome.
Lastly, school is to expand a student's knowledge base. I feel that grading a student on their ability to grasp, and recall knowledge is not correct. It is more important that a student know where to find knowledge and know how to apply it, than to physically contain it. If the ability to recall knowledge was so necessary in life, then teachers would not teach from books, they would have the entire class lessons memorized and would never have the need for books of any kind.
I feel that a school should only grade a student on their ability to complete the final product. It should not matter how they arrive there, just that they do it themselves. Grading a student, and forcing them to conform to the teacher's way of thinking just to get the grade is wrong. As long as a student knows how to find the knowledge, and apply it, I think that they are deserving of a passing grade.
