Breakthroughs In Education

In the article, “From Degrading to De-Grading”, by Alfie Kohn he discusses the harmful effects grades have on students. Kohn argues that there are better ways to assess students’ progress other than letter or numerical grades. Grades are a great concept but they tend to be more hurtful than helpful. Cheating can become a problem, students won’t take challenges, and they develop unhealthy competition between one another. There have been many studies conducted over the years that support Kohn’s argument.

Alfie Kohn discussed multiple fabulous points in his article, “Degrading to De-Grading”. The author suggests more effective ways to assess students’ progress other than numerical or letter grades. Kohn goes into detail about why our current grading system is flawed. Grades can cause students to lose interest in learning which causes them to stop taking challenges. If students are not engaged and interested than they are not retaining the information they are being taught. The grading system can also cause students to develop unhealthy competition with one another for instance, “I got a better grade than you!”. Indeed, grades are a wonderful concept, but they tend to be more hurtful than helpful. In some cases, grades can have positive effects on students. For example, setting goals for various assignments, or receiving help where they are struggling. Though, there are alternatives that could make positive changes in the system.

You have other cases where school is not a big priority or a big motivator because the school itself may be run down and can only make the most out of the limited resources the school budget has allowed. In other cases you may have been influenced by peer pressure or friends as this is only option for a way of life.

Today, a school education is no longer an option or privilege, but rather a need in the United States of America. The author of “Against School,” John Taylor Gatto says, “Do we really need school?” (143). What if children will not go to school, then how will they learn to read and write? Education is the demonstration of learning things around us and helps us to comprehend an objective in life. Most people who believe that children need higher education in order to succeed in life. We often don’t understand why we have to go to school every day, but when we grow up we realize that children need to attend the school for a wide range of reasons, for instance; for new experiences, increased knowledge or career preparation. School

School is slave labor. Rather than enjoying or learning from their classes, students are forced to do useless work that will often be forgotten immediately. Grades are meant to show much a student understands a class, but instead are used as a scale of how well a student can regurgitate answers onto a test. Students only work for good grades because of the threat of being punished for failure, and the promise of reward for passing. The punishments in this case are detention or trouble from teachers, and the rewards are making the honor roll or getting bragging rights. The real reward for learning should be having new knowledge, but this is not taken into consideration. Jerry Farber, a professor at U.S.D, made the strong claim that grades are useless and harmful in his essay, “A Young Person’s Guide to the Grading System.” I wholeheartedly agree with Farber’s objection to our current grading system.

Pharinet states “often the desire for learning is not what drives students to attend college” (635. Practical Argument: A Text and Anthology). We have developed in a society where everyone is expected to proceed to college. In actuality, nearly all people are not qualified for it. We are practically produced and accustom to believe that everyone needs a higher education in order to be successful. There are people who have never attended college and are progressing better than those who graduate with a bachelor’s or master’s degree. “The specter of successful college dropouts like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs weigh on young people making the decision on whether or not to go to college” (usnews.com). The main reason why everyone wants to be accepted to college is not for themselves but because they are pressured to by guidance counselors and parents claiming it is the right choice to

Education use to be a privilege for a select few. Gradually, more schools appeared and schooling became mandatory. Whereas education past primary schooling previously had focused mostly on finding a passion or job, mandatory schooling became more focused on achieveing. Both in sports and in academics, competition among youth increased. Due to this increasing competitiveness in schools, the love of learning is diminishing.

School is not just only an education place, it is a big opportunity where people win a lot of skills and develop their life. Many people attend school for several reasons, they believe in the important role that this organization play it. It is really useful that people decide to return back to school and have a different point of view to their future. Increase your knowledge level , know your rights and duties toward your society and earn good communication skills are some of many reasons that I think people prefer to go to school for it.

Alfie Kohn, author of “From Degrading to De-grading”, discussed the negative psychological effects that grades have on students. School should be used to educate people and strengthen their mind so that they can more easily learn to deal with specific challenges they will face throughout their life. There are two articles that agree with the views of Mr. Kohn, “Higher Education” by Howard R. Pollio and “Do Grades Do Any Good?” by Jessica Ellis. The articles that were chosen describe the importance of removing or replacing the grading system.

The grading system was made, for student to pass or fail. This, of course, is absurd. What we need is a system that do not judge a student work. Put your all in your work just to see a teacher put a failing grade on your work. When student fail some dropout of school, and become another negative static. How would you feel if someone you knew personnel, dropout school because they felt like was just getting harder everyday? Do you want to see your students succeed, and become successful?

Living in the 21st century, education, in general, is a necessity. It is no longer a choice or privilege reserved for those who want to be successful. Considering the cost of education and pressure of living in economically tough times, it raises the question of why study up to college? Could it be the peer pressure, feeling of being left out in the society, or is it just necessary for one to be educated to have a healthy life are some of the questions that we need to answer?

The grading system actually affects how students do in school. The current grading system can confuse students and parents. Most students get stressed out with the current grading system. I agree with Mr. Delaney that the grading system needs to be changed to a pass or fail system.

Have you ever had a bad experience with grades? Do grades create a preference for the easiest task? In " The Case Against Grades" Alfie Kohn argues why grades should be completely erased out of the system. I agree with him, when he says that "grades create a preference for the easiest possible task" and " grades tend to reduce the quality of students' thinking". I disagree with him, when he says that " Grades tend to diminish students interest in whatever they're learning".

A girl grew up exceling in school and always thought that learning brought happiness. Over time, she exceled so well that she was immediately put into honors classes. She was confused as to why but enjoyed learning the new information her new teachers taught. As middle and high school came, she realized that her learning was not as important as her grades. She fell into this expectation that she must keep her G.P.A. high and excel beyond her capability. Despite this, she has always overworked herself to achieve over a 4.0 G.P.A. and started to hate learning since then. This is what grading does to a student. Ever since schools focused on grades more than how much a student learned, students have come to believe that their grades are the most important aspect in life. They do not care about learning new information anymore. Although grading

Education is the best thing that can make everyone successful in our lives. There are so many people really have a hard time in studying, especially is students. They will have a special time in school, such as failure or success. Every student has to deal with a lot of things in school which are homework, classwork and so on. The most thing that every student concern is how to preparing students for college. Everyone knew, preparing students for college is very important to facet of our education system, but there are not many high school student graduated. Nowadays, most of the jobs require students for higher education Also, it's getting too difficult to get a job when they graduate high school or be successful without a college degree.