Grades Prevent Education

From the moment a child enters kindergarten, he is told that if he performs well, he will receive a gold star. The school system keeps on giving “gold stars” all through grade school, high school, college, but the gold stars become grades. Ironically, grades destroy children’s innate love of learning, which is the very opposite of what they’re supposed to do. By giving grades, adults communicate to children that since they must get a bribe for learning, it must be something that they don’t want to do. Although this love of learning is natural to all children, it takes only a year or two for the grading system to be drilled into a child’s mind. It is embedded in students’ minds, from the time they are children that the goal of learning is to gain a good grade, not to learn. Education should be a way of exploring what a person feels about the things he sees and experiences, so that he can form ideas about what he believes. The purpose of education is to teach students to think for themselves, not so they can earn a good grade, but so that they can understand, discuss with, and love others better. Giving grades in school completely prevents true education. With a system of education that is so strongly set in our society, many people assume that grading is the best or only option available today. The two most common questions people have about reforming this system are, firstly, why are grades unnecessary and detrimental to students’ motivation and, secondly, what would a reformed system look like, and more specifically, how would teachers track students’ progress and how would colleges conduct admissions.

Are gold stars necessary? Can students be motivated to learn without the promise of a reward? In Tom Sawyer, Tom tricks the other children into doing his chores for him by making them believe that the chore is an honor and demanding payment for doing it. The children assume that if they must pay to do it, it must be what they want to do. This concept goes the other direction, too. If a person is being paid for doing something, then he doesn’t want to do it. If we must give a student a reward—a grade—they must be doing something they wouldn’t without the reward. This discussion is one of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. Simon A. Lei describes these two temperaments as follows, “Intrinsically motivated individuals have been able to develop high regards for learning various types of course information without the inclusion of external rewards of reinforcements. In contrast, extrinsically motivated individuals rely solely on rewards and desirable results to act as a catalyst for their motivation” (153). In his essay, Lei maintains that intrinsically motivated students work on academic tasks because they enjoy them, and not explicitly because of a promised reward, but that extrinsically motivated students will often not complete an academic task, regardless of their competency, if there are no incentives present (154). Many experiments have been performed to explore the differences between these two motivations. One of these experiments, done by Susan Harter, tested the hypothesis that children receive the most pleasure from optimally challenging tasks by giving a group of sixth graders were given four difficulty problems of differing complexity. Half of the group was instructed that the task was a school assignment which would receive a letter grade and half or the group was instructed that the task was a game. The children who viewed the task as a game chose and showed a preference for optimally challenging problem. On the other hand, the group who viewed the task as an academic assignment chose significantly easier problems. These children respond below their optimal level, and also exhibited less pleasure and verbalized more anxiety. Harter states that the findings within the study can be interpreted within the cognitive-evaluation theory, which argues that extrinsic rewards can negatively affect intrinsic motivation by decreasing a student’s sense of self-determination and competence (788). Clearly, grades are not only unnecessary for motivating students, but detrimental to students’ educations.

If grades were not given out in school, how would teachers track the progress of their students? In schools today, grades are the scale which students are measured by. Without grades, determining if a student should continue on to the next course would become a more difficult matter and would put much more pressure on teachers to know their students, their students’ work, and their students’ progress in the class. Many concerns would arise such as would a student pass a class only if they had a theoretically ‘A’ involvement in the class and wouldn’t every teacher regard a persons’ work differently? With much concern, people argue that students who were completely unqualified to pass courses could be passing left and right. Let us consider two things, however. First, with our present grading system, there are multitudes of unqualified students passing courses, which either have not effectively tested their mastery of a subject or have allowed them to cheat the system in many ways. Illustrating this point to perfection, hundreds of high school students enter college composition classes every year without the basic knowledge of how to use commas correctly, regardless of the fact that they have taken twelve years of English and grammar courses. The second essential consideration is to ask why a student should be allowed to pass a course with anything less than an ‘A’ grade or complete mastery of the skill.

If the student has not accomplished the course work to the teacher’s satisfaction—if a student can further improve, why should they continue? The point of education is not ability compared to others, but mastery of a skill. There are ways for teachers to keep track of their students other than grades. These ways are much more time-consuming and more complicated, yet altogether more effective. Demanding much greater commitment from teachers, marking progress without grades would consist of teachers knowing their students personally, letting go of control over grading students’ performance, and spending time giving constructive criticism in the form of notes or a conference on how a student is doing. Necessarily, is would demand that students care about the subjects they are learning—not care about the grade they would be receiving, but the knowledge they take in. This reformed system would mean a reconstruction of the school system from kindergarten forward. The truth is that true education is not easy because it necessitates the care and commitment of all involved.

If grades were not distributed, there would be a completely different system for college admissions. The system could conceivably consist of three different things. First off, it would consist of an extremely detailed portfolio of essays written by various teachers commenting on the particular student’s abilities, strengths, and weaknesses, which would resemble a letter of recommendation, except far more honest and revealing. The student would also write an essay about himself and his educational experience explaining such things as what subjects were most important to him and why he wants to attend college. The third section of the college admission would be an interview between a college representative and the student that would give time for any remaining questions the college might have for the student and allow the college to get a feel for the kind of person they’re admitting. Alfie Kohn elaborates on grades by explaining that “Contrary to popular belief, however, admissions officers at the best universities are not eighty-year-old fuddy-duddies, peering over their spectacles and muttering about “highly irregular” applications.” He elaborates that often these people are just a few years out of college themselves, and, after hundreds of identical applications from average good students, they’re refreshed to look at something unconventional (110). Today, the most renowned schools, including Harvard and Yale, applications demand not only a high ACT or SAT score, but also a testimony from two teachers and an essay written by the student. These colleges know that a grade point average is not enough. Harvard’s admissions page states:

Applicants can distinguish themselves for admission in a number of ways. Some show unusual academic promise through experience or achievements in study or research. Many are “well rounded” and have contributed in various ways to the lives of their schools or communities. Others are “well lopsided” with demonstrated excellence in a particular endeavor—academic extracurricular or otherwise. Still others bring perspectives formed by unusual personal circumstances or experiences. Academic accomplishment in high school is important, but we also seek people with enthusiasm, creativity and strength of character. Most admitted students rank in the top 10–15 percent of their graduating classes, having taken the most rigorous secondary school curriculum available to them (“Applying to Harvard”).

Certain students today do have “highly irregular” applications, most specifically homeschooled students. Commenting on this phenomenon, Kohn says, “Given that the most selective colleges have been known to accept home-schooled children who have applicants would be rejected if, instead of the usual transcript, their schools sent along several thoughtful qualitative assessments from some of the students’ teachers, together with a form letter explaining cultivate intrinsic motivation rather than a performance orientation. Indeed, admission officers for two of the country’s most prestigious universities confirm that they do receive, and seriously consider, applications that contain no grades” (110). This individual reformed and grade-detox system for college admissions would succeed in determining the brilliant students suited to each school.

In schools across the nation today, grades are thwarting true education, which has been diminished to a counterfeit puppet show of true education. Contrary to widespread belief, education does not depend on grades. Students can be motivated without grades, teachers can track progress without grades, and colleges can accept applicants without grades. So why do grades still exist? Because, ridding the education system of grades would not be a systematic piece-meal restructuring, but a radical reformation in which everything that people take for granted in schools—grades, extra credit, pop quizzes—all of these which contradict education, would be banished in one fell swoop. It would utterly change the mindset of students and professors, by creating an environment that encourages a love of learning and exploring, rather than a system that promotes performing and accomplishing the minimum. This reformation would change this country’s culture more than almost any other decision possible, and that is a terrifying though. Change is always terrifying, especially when the change calls for exchange of easily followed rules for more ephemeral and subjective methods, as is the case with the exchange of grades for specific feedback and intrinsic motivation. Yet this change would benefit the school system incomparably. Most importantly, without grades students would learn to think for themselves, would learn to learn for the sake of learning, and would learn to become self-motivated people, who are determined to discover the world around them for themselves. Grades keep students in chains, but with reform they can be free.

Works Cited
“Applying to Harvard.” Harvard.edu. Harvard College. Web. 7 Nov. 2011.

Boggiano, Ann K., and Diane N. Ruble.
“Competence and the Over Justification Effect: A Developmental Study.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37.9 (1979): 1462-1468. PsycARTICLES. EBSCO. Web 16 Oct. 2011.

Harter, Susan. “Pleasure Derived from Challenge and the Effects of Receiving Grades on Children’s Difficulty Level Choices.” Child Development 49 (1978): 788-799. EBSCO MegaFILE. Web. 16 Oct. 2011.

Kohn, Alfie. Punished by Rewards. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1993. Print.

Lei, Simon A. “Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation: Evaluation Benefits and Drawbacks from College Instructors’ Perspectives.” Journal of Instructional Psychology 37.2 (2010): 153-160. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 16 Oct. 2011.