Before I begin ranting, I wanted to bring up a quote that I heard in class which essentially described the type of character that I have, or have been developing recently. It was a quote from George Carlin that read "Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist". If you don't believe that I am a cynic, just take a look at my previous blog post on voting, looking back on it retrospectively the despair and defeat that I am peddling is that of a broken down, old soul. I feel as though I've been reincarnated numerous times and have finally come to the conclusion that nothing changes. Charming I know. Any who the topic of discussion that I have been avoiding for an entire paragraph now, is grades. Grades blow.
There are a lot of problems with our educational system nowadays. This is something that should come as no small surprise to those of us who experienced the brilliance of no child left behind or the immensely popular teach to the test attitude. I myself am the son of a Philadelphia Public School teacher, and have seen first hand the corruption and sadness that go on behind the scenes. However its not just the public schools, please dont get me wrong, I believe that these flaws extend into college and other types of learning. However one of the most noticeable flaws of todays educational system is using letter grades to determines someones worth.
But how to live without grades you say? How can we judge who is smart and who is not? I ask you "WHY DO WE NEED THESE DISTINCTIONS?". Coming from someone who graduated from a fairly competitive high school and is currently attending a somewhat competitive college, GRADES CAN MAKE OR BREAK PEOPLE. Its really sad. How many times have you seen someone worry more about the grade they are going to receive than their knowledge on the subject? Probably far too many times. This is the problem, grades are a distraction from learning. In the perfect system their would be a one on one test with student and teacher, in which they would be evaluated through the students choice of presentation. For too long we have suffered in a system in which grades come before education. People don't care about class because they are not being taught correctly. Rather than being taught the information on test, we have been trained to find and eliminate the incorrect answers. Too long have we been trained to churn out five paragraph essays, that are merely marked for certain bullet points. The fact is there is a huge flaw that is not only disabling the students ability to learn, but the teachers job to teach. Grades are dumb.
Ps. I had a dream last night where I had a swastika on my shirt, and I didnt have pants on. I panicked and ran into a store to buy a new shirt and pants, however when I got inside every piece of clothing had a swastika on it. Scary stuff I know.... I have to stop watching WW2 documentaries before I go to sleep.
There are a lot of problems with our educational system nowadays. This is something that should come as no small surprise to those of us who experienced the brilliance of no child left behind or the immensely popular teach to the test attitude. I myself am the son of a Philadelphia Public School teacher, and have seen first hand the corruption and sadness that go on behind the scenes. However its not just the public schools, please dont get me wrong, I believe that these flaws extend into college and other types of learning. However one of the most noticeable flaws of todays educational system is using letter grades to determines someones worth.
But how to live without grades you say? How can we judge who is smart and who is not? I ask you "WHY DO WE NEED THESE DISTINCTIONS?". Coming from someone who graduated from a fairly competitive high school and is currently attending a somewhat competitive college, GRADES CAN MAKE OR BREAK PEOPLE. Its really sad. How many times have you seen someone worry more about the grade they are going to receive than their knowledge on the subject? Probably far too many times. This is the problem, grades are a distraction from learning. In the perfect system their would be a one on one test with student and teacher, in which they would be evaluated through the students choice of presentation. For too long we have suffered in a system in which grades come before education. People don't care about class because they are not being taught correctly. Rather than being taught the information on test, we have been trained to find and eliminate the incorrect answers. Too long have we been trained to churn out five paragraph essays, that are merely marked for certain bullet points. The fact is there is a huge flaw that is not only disabling the students ability to learn, but the teachers job to teach. Grades are dumb.
Ps. I had a dream last night where I had a swastika on my shirt, and I didnt have pants on. I panicked and ran into a store to buy a new shirt and pants, however when I got inside every piece of clothing had a swastika on it. Scary stuff I know.... I have to stop watching WW2 documentaries before I go to sleep.
I totally agree with you on how there's more of an emphasis on grades than learning nowadays, normalguy417. In a perfect education system, tests would be a representation of concepts learned and understood rather than pure book memorization (or how well you can find the right answer). It's a screwed up system because politicians are the ones designing the academic curriculum, but then again, regular people (the ones that vote anyway)are voting these people into office. To be honest, I don't think anything will change any time soon.
ReplyDeleteAnother Excellent post normalguy417, keep them coming
ReplyDelete