It is Not All about the Grades

Salvador Y. Watanabe
Prof. Audrey Breay
English 101
October 12, 2014
Self-Responsibility
One positive to Grade Inflation is the fact that students are less stressed over grades and school over all, besides the more money the school gets as a result of higher letter grade output. Although students are less stressed, the do however become lazier which in the end results in more stupid people. Some students might take advantage of this and take more classes or do positive and valuable things outside of school. This would not be a problem if students are responsible for their education, and see that grades are not the main reason why students go to school. Students go to schools to learn and understand what they learn. Teachers in grade school should teach students to focus on the material instead of the grades. The grades should only be a representation of what the students knows and what the students is capable of understands, not how well they can hold their bladder or the amount of printer paper they can take to school. Teachers should not give out extra credit unless it is directly and uninterruptedly related to what they are learning in school. When I was in the third grade my teacher gave out little orange construction paper squares, for us to write our names on and use as restroom tokens. At the end of the school year she took all of the tokens we didn’t use, put them in a jar and selected at random tokens to give out extra credit. A couple of weeks before the end of the year I found orange construction paper in a school material cabinet in the class room. I took 2 whole sheets home, cut them in the same size as the original ones, had about 20 of them wrote my name on all of them. The teacher called my name at least three times. This one problem that these teachers, officials of education that the government hired to teach children, the seed of the country’s future, and they are giving out extra credit like this? I believe that they are the cause of grade inflation but can be completely avoided if the students just focuses on the material and try to completely understand it. The complete comprehension of the learning material should be student’s main goal. They should do this besides the fact of grade inflation. Although grade inflation does bring out the understanding of the material instead of the focus on receiving, not achieving a high letter grade. Alfie Kohn said in “THE DANGEROUS MYTH OF GRADE INFALTION” teachers are deciding for the students and sorting them for employers or graduate schools. Teachers cannot make this assumption based on scores the students received on tests and projects. If the teachers were really that involved in assuring a good future for their students then they should have a meeting with each individual student and interrogate them on the subject, and seek for their complete understanding of the material. When the students becomes self-responsible and focuses on the understanding of the material instead of the grade, there is a possibility that they will not get a perfect score. When that happens I believe that if the student was wise enough to realize that it is not about the grade but the understanding of the material then they have a chance to appeal for the perfect score due to their understanding of the material, which they deserve. In some cases teachers grade their students based on what their opinion of a student is. In my senior English class in high school, my friend was nice to my teacher and more. Although she was late almost every day and didn’t turn in every assignment, she still got late. My friend received an “A”. I would agree that she could have received that “A” even though she was late, due to the fact that it is not related to her comprehension of the material. Students in all grades except elementary, without a doubt have a hard time realizing that it’s not all about the grade. Which is the reason why teachers in lower level grades should hint to their students that grades are not the main reason why they do the work they do in class and why they do their homework. If the idea that grades are not the be all end all, then students and people of the future will have a clearer understanding of so many more topics and I hope that the intelligence of the average human being will increase, instead of decrease or slower increase. In summation, I believe that teachers in grade school need to teach their students that it is not all about the grades. Then in middle school and throughout high school teach them how to study, research and most importantly comment on the material in order for them to understand it completely and be able to use those skills in their life’s to better themselves, and have a better chance at getting into a prestigious college where they will actually earn the grades.

Works Cited
Alfie Kohn. “The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation.”
Authenticity, Ed. Shame Barrowman. Southlake: Fountain Head, 2012. 153-164. Print.

Cited: Alfie Kohn. “The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation.” Authenticity, Ed. Shame Barrowman. Southlake: Fountain Head, 2012. 153-164. Print.