| A school in my town has offered families the option
of having their children's grades given only to the parents, or to
no one, on request. The children in these families would not see
any grades at all. This seems to be a step in the right direction.
However, an editorial in our local newspaper accused the parents
who accepted these options of "overprotecting" their
children, and preventing them from facing important
"consequences." While it may be
"overprotection" to hide truths from children, low
grades are not "truths." Poor grades can be due to many
factors beyond the child's control, such as a teacher's negative
subjective impressions, the school's failure to account for
individual differences, distracting family situations, misleading
test questions, and false assumptions about what constitutes
meaningful subject matter. Besides, if, as the editor himself
suggested, children "know when they are doing well and when
they are struggling," there is no need for grades. The only
function a grade should have is informative. The most useful
information is whether the educational approach being used by
the teacher is the most appropriate one for that particular
child's current interests and learning style.
Every teaching situation involves the school, the teacher, the
student, the student's parents, and the student's personal
situation, among many other factors; it is unfair and unrealistic
to present low grades as a measure of the child's actions alone.
Schools try to have it both ways, by taking credit when things are
going well, and blaming the child, or the child's parents, when
they are not.
A child's self-esteem is a very precious commodity. Parents who
attempt to maintain their child's self-esteem by avoiding the
potential hazards of an imperfect, misleading, and harmful grading
system should be commended, not criticized. Using grades as a
threatened punishment poses a danger, not just to a child's
self-esteem and motivation, but to the child's opportunity to
learn in a climate that enhances learning. As the educator John
Holt warned, "When we make children afraid, we stop learning
dead in its tracks." Tragically, the indignity of low grades,
which are notoriously subjective anyway, can effectively stop a
child's learning by destroying his motivation and his belief in
his own worth and abilities. School vandalism is often related to
the anger and humiliation a child feels after receiving low
grades. Even "good" grades give children the false
message that extrinsic rewards are more important than the
intrinsic value of learning itself.
In any case, it is ultimately the parents' right to decide
whether grades are helpful or harmful for their child; after all,
it is a legal option for children to learn at home and avoid
grades entirely. For those parents considering this alternative,
and for all those interested in the nature of learning, I highly
recommend John Holt's insightful book, How Children Learn.
"The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil. It
is not for you to choose what he shall know, what he shall do. It
is foreordained, and he only holds the key to his own
secret." For those families who have learned to trust and
respect their children, Ralph Waldo Emerson's words still ring
true.
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