Thursday, October 22, 2009
Get the Grade
What's wrong with schools these days? Grades grades grades. That's all they focus on. And now, that's all I focus on. We don't go to school because we are enthusiastic about learning. We go to school to get the grade. It is not about if we understand the school work, it's all about the points. For instance we get extra credit for bringing in a box of tissue. We get extra credit for all these ridiculous things. But, I'm not complaining. I wouldn't be able to get the grades that I get without all those easy assignments. In class, we were talking about the Barbie and Beavis scenario. Barbie passes while Beavis fails despite the fact that Beavis actually knows more that Barbie does. I was completely lost in honors geometry last year but I ended up with a B because I did my homework. I got very low test grades which obviously showed that I didn't understand the material and doing the homework didn't help. I'm glad to see that teachers are starting to understand this obsession with grades. The only grades in my APUSH class are tests and essays. Thus, if we get an A, we really understand the material. O'Reilly is totally against extra credit for tissue and useless homework. Also, Sal is all about learning to learn not learning for the grade.
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Thats a good point about your geometry class. I was exactly the same way and I was relieved with my B b.c I thought I deserved it for working so hard. In reality, I did not get the information if I was doing bad on tests, like Barbie.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it sucks that this school is all about grades, we've been sucked into the system of grades being number 1.
ReplyDeleteI'm put in the exact same place as you were in your math class last year, i do the homework, but not so well on tests in my current math class.
It's not fair that our school really focuses on grades, but thinking about it, I can't imagine not having grades and points because i always want to know how well I'm doing. I agree with you. =]
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting how the Stevenson culture would change and how other schools would perceive us if we switched to the proposed merit-based grades. It would do away with the need for Infinite Campus and probably relax a lot of people. But it would probably kill our state standings, and would the parents/administration stand for that?
ReplyDeleteWe should be learning to learn, and not to focus upon our grades so much. Grades will always be a problem, without grades how would we be able to make into the colleges we want. In a way we are obligated to check our grades to know if we are doing well or not.
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