Course 3: Alternatives to Grades

Grades are so meaningless. Say you’ve got a kid with a C+ average. What does that mean? Does it mean he’s a D+ in science but a B+ in history? Does it mean he’s a really bad mathematician but a great writer? Does it mean he can’t read, but pays attention and doesn’t disrupt the class? It’s wild to me. Then you have schools that say, “Ooh, now we’ll get a little more specific.” So they give a kid a 91 rather than an A. But it’s the same thing. You take an English paper and you break it up mathematically, with 80 points for content, 10 points for grammar, 10 points for thesis statement . . . and that’s how you get the number. It’s all false. Even a good grade doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Seymour Sarason puts it this way, “Now look, just because a child has a normal body temperature that doesn’t mean he’s not sick.”

Grades are totally subjective, too. If the assignment was to build a ladder to the moon and a kid got halfway there, would you give her an F for lack of follow-through, or an A for perseverance and building a 120,000-mile ladder?

Dennis Littky