This past week in class we discussed the topic of whether or
not grades should be assessed to measure success of a student. This topic was
brought up due to the Philosophy behind Marx. Marx had four ways in which he
felt Capitalism estranged/alienated labor. First, he states the worker is
alienated from the product of his/her labor, secondly from the process of
production, third, from his/her species being, and finally, from other human
beings. The topic that relates to the topic of grades in education is the
worker is being alienated from the process of production. It was argued that
giving out grades hinders student’s motivation and potential to succeed. If a
student knew he would make an A in a course no matter he wouldn’t feel
pressured to perform; I would argue and say the exact opposite, if a student
knew he/she was going to make an A in a course regardless of the effort, he/she
would be apathetic and not concerned about the effort he/she put in. I do agree
that grades do not signify how intelligent a student truly is because there are
so many other factors that go into intelligence; a simple GPA would not do
justice. Some students are highly gifted at cramming last minute and learning
what they need to do to pass a test, but soon as the test is over they hardly
ever retain the information they
learned. I know personally I’m guilty as charged with this style of study;
however, I feel like that’s how our education system has set us up to succeed. As
biology major, I feel like grades are very pertinent to have in a class. These
grades are used to set aside one student from another and are an easy way
professional school programs can see how a student performs in any given class
against any other student applying as well. I don’t think assigning grades is
alienating a population from the process of production as far as education is
concerned.
I agree with you half way. Grades are not a measure of how intelligent or successful a student will be after they graduate from college. It would be great to know that i a not being graded in class and automatically receive and A for the class. I would probably show up every time and pick classes that i was actually interested in and not made to take just because the school said i must take them. But sadly, this is not the case for everyone. If some knew they automatically got an A in the course, then there would be no motivation for them to come at all, or even participate for that matter. You cannot change a persons motivation. Only a penalty or a reward will sway them to be more, or less motivated to do an action. This is where we are in the school system. We are penalized with an F if we do not perform well for one of the many classes that we take, and we receive a B or an A, depending how optimistic you are, when we do a good job. It is not the fault of the schools, but the fault of the individuals.
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