More about grades

"Evaluative instances" are supposed to be learning opportunities, but are they really? We spend hours reading and then communicating comments, questions, corrections, information, etc., and what happens when the paper goes back? It's right to the last page to see the grade, then never will the paper be seen again. That is if the paper was picked up at all. When we hand back exams and papers for review, we think of it as the last real learning opportunity for those concepts. You look at it as an opportunity to get more points. When you come to the office before or after a test/assignment, we hope that we can help you learn something. You look at it as an opportunity to get more points. When we conduct a class, it is with the hope that some knowledge and/or skills may be improved. You look at it as an opportunity to get more points. For many of you, then, we seem to be at cross purposes. We entered the professional to help people learn things we care about. Some, maybe many of you, entered college to get the highest grades with the lowest effort in order to attain a degree that will make you more money. Cynical? Perhaps.

We really don't care about your grades. We just sometimes pretend to. I suppose they do serve as tools in the carrots-and-sticks sense, and there are dimensions of equity, closure, and tradition involved. But in general, they take away from what we really want to do with our teaching, yet we understand that "the man" needs a scorecard. Too bad, as it would be so much better if the students would leave the temple only when they have snatched the pebbles.