Participation points a disadvantage for some

Everyone knows the feeling of dread that settles in the pit of your stomach on the first day when your teacher inevitably announces that participation is part of the overall class grade, especially anxious students. Grading participation gives extroverted students an advantage because they don’t have to work as hard to earn the points as the introverted, anxious students do. Teachers fail to take this into account and single out the students who raise their hands less often, which only adds to the already mounting anxiety. School should not be a source of anxiety for any student, but participation grades make anxiety a staple of the school environment.

Giving students points for participating gives more outspoken students an advantage. They want to voice their opinions and be heard. While soft-spoken students may also want to voice their opinions, they are less likely to do so. By the time they have mustered the courage needed to contribute to a conversation, the topic has already changed.

Teachers tend to target the quieter students in order to give them the points they are otherwise missing out on. However, this logic is very faulty. Calling on a quiet student won’t magically make them less anxious about contributing. It might actually do the exact opposite.

Any school environment that makes anxiety a constant variable is harmful to students. Expecting students to do well throughout the entire school year is incredibly unrealistic. As finals draw closer each semester, students feel a mounting pressure to exceed their exams. However, the anxiety that accompanies finals is counterproductive to their performance, as many students have testing anxiety. For some students, the testing anxiety is so bad that as soon as they begin the exam, they panic and blank on all of the information, even if they were completely ready thirty seconds earlier. This causes students to do poorly on exams and, in turn, cause them to think they aren’t good at the subject. Society has ingrained in us that testing is an accurate portrayal of knowledge, but this is entirely false. Many students are better at projects or debates than written exams because it gives them more chance to regain their footing if they do freeze and forget.

The increasing amount of standardized tests being required makes everything worse. Standardized tests are even more anxiety inducing than finals for some students. Also, they serve no purpose. States would have a higher grade point average if they required students to take fewer tests, including but not limited to standardized testing.