Starting in middle school, the emphasis on our grades becomes much higher. They become much more important. This puts strain on some of our students.
Middle school isn’t just three years of more school. Middle school is three years of big transition in which many new things are introduced and old things are enforced more seriously. You learn to be independent, and that means that now, you have grades. Everything is taken more seriously when it comes to schoolwork. But of course, you also now know what you are doing wrong and what you are doing right.
So now comes the big question. Do you even need grades? There are pros and cons for having grades, and they are listed below.
Yes for grades: Some people think grades are the best thing to have ever been created. But even if you aren’t exactly along that route, grades, some believe, are pretty awesome. After all, grades have been used for many years
Some believe that grades motivate students. They don’t send a message, “you’re not worthy,” but instead send the message “don’t worry, take some time and you’ll get it.” Think about it. When somebody gets a D, you want to get better. You want to prove to yourself and others that you can do it, because you know you can. And when you get an A, that pushes you forward, makes you want to keep on getting A’s, A’s, and more A’s. As quoted from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/practical-wisdom/201101/do-grades-incentives-work, “…discussions about grade inflation are framed as being too soft on students — too concerned about minimizing feelings of stress and maximizing feelings of empowerment and not concerned enough with actual achievement.”
Your parents. Your parents can check your report cards (bet you wish they couldn’t). But they can tell you what to work on, and it tells them whether they need to help you or not. Because, believe it or not, a parent just wants to make you the best you they can make you into. And report cards tell them how much farther they need to go.
Can you do it? That’s what report cards tell you. You want to do it. Everyone does. But report cards tell you, as if they were real, that you are perfect the way you are, at least in one or two subjects. And while you might not achieve a perfect A, you at least know that you have the potential to get better at that subject. And that’s all you need for now.
So basically, people think grades are good because they:
- Motivate students.
- Tell your parents what you need to work on.
- Tell you what you need to work on and what you actually are good at.
No for grades: Some people believe that grades are meaningless letters. A, B, C, D, and F. Why can’t teachers just say, “You did a good job on this project. Here’s what you need to work on….”, instead of assigning a letter grade?
Here’s the thing. When some students see that they have a F in science or social studies, math or IRLA, they think they have been labeled as “bad” in this subject. They believe that have been defined as a bad student. This doesn’t motivate; it pushes people down! Why should we do that?
As quoted in https://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-crouch/grades-do-more-harm-than-_b_4190907.html, “Many kids feel pressured to cut corners, sacrifice ethics, and take easier courses, all in an effort to achieve better grades instead of better learning.” Obviously, we should be interested in learning, so this is another important reason grades should be taken away. School is for learning! Why are we sacrificing anything that will help us? Because we are pressured. Why are we pressured? Because of grades! It’s as simple as that.
Summing all this up, grades are, some people believe, pushing us down instead of up. As quoted in http://neatoday.org/2015/08/19/are-letter-grades-failing-our-students/ and education expert Alfie Khon, “The research quite clearly shows that kids who are graded – and have been encouraged to try to improve their grades – tend to lose interest in the learning itself, avoid challenging tasks whenever possible (in order to maximize the chance of getting an A), and think less deeply than kids who aren’t graded.” A’s aren’t important, learning is!
This is also not good for a kid’s emotional health. Middle school kids need something that will encourage them. They feel like they have been told more than enough times that they aren’t good at a subject, and seeing it put on paper or on a website (depending on the school; ours puts it on Genesis) isn’t helping them at all. Why do we want to push the kids down? The answer is, we don’t. And that’s why some states, such as Colorado, Virginia, and Iowa, are improving their grading systems. So grades, people think, should go away.
So basically, some people think grades are bad because they:
- Make us want to “cut corners”, or in other words, take easier courses to make sure we get A’s.
- Makes us sacrifice our important learning time (well, important for some people).
- And makes emotional health go down in kids.
There is real controversy among both students and teachers on the subject of grading. Some believe, truly, that grades really do help you learn. Some believe that they just push you down and make you focus on the grades rather than the actual learning. We don’t know. We hope for the first one, but it might not be true. Perhaps, in the future, we will find out.
Grover Middle School's Jagazine 