Terrie writes:
I found this week’s reading to be very interesting, and discovered that it kind of runs a parallel to what I’m experiencing at the jr. high where I teach. I like the idea of “Give an A”, and see that what the author is saying is very true. I’d never thought of a grade as being invented, but totally agree that it is. The bad thing is that Agua Dulce ISD takes it one step further. In my jr. high, kids are put into classes according to their ability...i.e. their grades... those made up numbers assigned to students by their teachers. We have a “high” sixth grade and a “low” one. We have a “high” seventh grade and a “low” one. We have a “high” eighth grade and a “low” one. It began bugging me when my homeroom class referred to themselves as “The Dumb Ones”, but the book has convinced me even more that the system needs to change. Students in all three “low” classes think of themselves as “The Dumb Ones”. They have never been told by our administration that they are the “low” class, but they are pretty savvy and have figured it all out for themselves. This is a primary example of, as the author said, “matching them up against other students”. It is not fair to any of them, and I fear the damage is very hard to reverse.
My son is a Senior in this district and I’ve battled with him thinking he is dumb and can’t do academics for the last 8 years. Until reading these chapters, I’ve attributed it to things that happened in our personal lives that I didn’t take care of sooner. Last night I found myself wondering if he felt that way because he’d been in the “low” classes in jr. high. The thought infuriated me more. As teachers, parents entrust us with the physical and emotional well being of their children everyday. It is our responsibility to build them up, not tear them down. Isn’t that what we are basically doing when we assign a grade to a student? We are either building them up, or tearing them down.
I realize that our grades build ideas in our heads about ourselves, and now I realize that they really are made up...but my biggest concern is that I see how much damage it causes, and I am desperate to change it, but how does someone go in and change an age-old standard? How do I...one person among MANY...convince an establishment that doesn’t like change that it needs to change? I’m standing by and watching helplessly as my students slip through the perverbial crack and slide perilously down into the darkness that is apathy toward all things related to academics.
I really can sympathize what you had to say about your son and his view on his academic abilities. My children are still in elementary, so the division of students has not yet begun; however, I battle this problem in the high school where I teach daily. Students are categorized based on test scores obtained on a single day on a single test called the FCAT. I think it is a terrible thing to give this picture of limitation of possibility to students
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