Public Education and Grades

[Draco Straybyrn]

Resolved: The public education system be less dependent on grades.

 

Whereas, grades may not accurately reflect a person's intelligence.

 

Whereas, there are far more ways to train a child than through textbooks.

 

Whereas, everyone is different, and some children have strengths and abilities better suited for other tasks.

[Junk Raver]

I agree that grades are not everything and that the education system is flawed.

 

Someone maybe exceedingly smart at maths and may just have a terrible exam of which they fail and recieve a bad grade from, this grade shows performance on the paper not overall intelligence thus its inaccurate for final grades to mean anything.

 

If someone went for a Job interview with a Final Grade E for Maths and yet they have the Mathematical Knowledge of say a B grade, it will effect if they get the job or not and that is purely not fair.

 

Grades do not determine a persons knowledge, its merely performance in a situation.

[Cyber Altair]

grades dont determine the IQ level nor the level of knowledge on the topic.

 

Many people are smart and can get D's, may it be for bad day, lack of sleep, depression, stress or even overconfidence. Many Jackasses get A's just cause they cheated, slept with the teacher or just got lucky.

 

A person's Grade dont classify a person's intelligence. their actions and behavior do so. The grading system should be replaced with something a bit more efficient.

[Draco Straybyrn]

@DJ and CD: The first replies are supposed to be that of the opposition...

[Junk Raver]

But who on earth would be against that point, its a topic to easy to answer and it cannot generate much debate.

[Draco Straybyrn]

But who on earth would be against that point' date=' its a topic to easy to answer and it cannot generate much debate.

[/quote']

 

Crab or Static.

 

Wait for them.

[Enigma Zero]

Of the points in this topic I can find one thing to dissagree with so far...

Dj Osiris:

But who on earth would be against that point, its a topic to easy to answer and it cannot generate much debate.

 

I do not believe that this topic is that easy to resolve. It's actually a very tricky thing to balance if you don't want to do more harm than the current system. On one hand it's easily agreeable that the current grade system does not work. I would also submit that the entire method of the current education system(at least in the US) is flawed because it no longer attempts to educate children so much as it test preps them for profisciency testing because educators are scared to death of losing their jobs. Topics are just lightly skimmed over as opposed to previous systems which had a far stronger emphasis on establishing core fundamentals. It is, for example, no longer nearly as important that a child be a good reader as it is for them to have the ability to be dragged, kicking and screaming, by the seat of their pants through X amount of books. Literary Comprehension has been replaced by Quotas in which it's only truly important if the book was read by someone in the class so a small test can be completed as a means of 'checking' the book off the completed list as opposed to the children acutally having comprehended what they were reading aloud in the 1st place.

 

On the other hand, the systematic removal of a letter grading system has been proposed in Florida and may take effect at either the next school year or the one after that depending on whether or not the proposal is passed. The problem here is that Florida is not suggesting this removal based on any true flaw in the education process so much as they are suggesting this because of what they're describing as "The stress and happiness of those children who would not get good grades in a grade based system." In a nutshell, they just want to remove grades so the children who perform badly in this sytem don't feel bad. This is, for lack of a better term, a crock.

 

The problem with the removal of a grade system, while acknowledging that some children do simply test better than others, is not so much the removal itself...but what to replace it with in order to not accidently remove all incentive for students to strive and actually make an effort. What motivation exists in a gradeless system for the excellent student to perform if they're to be treated the same as the average and below average students? If children actually are the future of the world in which we live then why promote mediocrity? To me this kind of approach seems to promote a world similiar to that found in the movie Idiocracy, only far less humorous.

 

So while it is very easy to point out the flaws in the current system and say that changes need to occur, proposals to actually accomplish that goal are far more complex. I, personally, would much rather live in a world populated by genuises and nimrods than one where everyone is simply average. At least in the current system the motivation exists for children to do well in school and, I know is untrue in most cases, some of these children do actually have functional parents to add onto what the kids are learning in school.

 

Well, that's enough typing for my 1st post in this forum. Until next time. ;)

[Static]

Resolved: Education should be less dependent on grades.

 

Whereas' date=' grades may not accurately reflect a person's intelligence.

 

Whereas, there are far more ways to train a child than through textbooks.

 

Whereas, everyone is different, and some children have strengths and abilities better suited for other tasks.

[/quote']

 

Fixed, because ideally, private schools would not exist.

 

You have a good point, but the ideology behind it is incorrect. Everyone should be judged on the same standards (where we disagree), but those standards need to be fixed. (where we agree)

 

As human beings, we should expect the same output from everyone. The problem is, we expect this output to be the same type of output as the next person. The fact that some people can be better at certain tasks (to each his own) is what makes humanity able to survive. We need to judge by equal standards, but we should NOT be expected to be equal in the same aspects.

 

So there :P

[Cyber Altair]

Static, i dont think we ever said every person should be graded differently but the current education system, no life itself relies so much on your Grades it isn't even funny. the worst part is that the flaws in the Grading system are greater then the flaws in the logic of many members here. The current system needs to be replaced by a better and much more efficient system but unfortunately no government is willing to step up, admit the mistake being made and try to fix it.

 

The really bad part of the system is that it all depends on 1 exam, big mistake. Many people fail under pressure, bad luck, prejudice or even lack of sleep. What annoys me more is the fact that the biggest cheater becomes the biggest winner whereas if you suck at cheating then your screwed. I do think the syllabs should be broken into segments, mabye 3 and each one amounts to like 1/3 of the marks meaning if you screwed up in one exam you still have a chance at passing and getting a life rather then living in the sewers.

 

Also where the hell is Salty, i would like to hear his opinion on this matter.

[Static]

Cheating is easy, just wear a sweatshirt into school and have a small piece of paper with the objective (multiple choice, true and false, etc...) answers in your sleeve, and check it for every 5-10 answers. Well, it works for final exams, too much effort for a regular test if you ask me.

 

No one will make a better system because no one has porposed a better system. Ideally, school would be where we teach our youth about equality and tolerance more than math and science, and the people who need to know math and science for their future would be learn more of it than someone who is going to do some other job that needs less math and science. Ideally, wages would be equally (socialized), so the "well, im gonna be richer by learning more" thing would not exist, people would do what they want to. And I mean really, enough people go into software engineering rather than doctoring that there will be little problem with certain jobs having too many people and some too few.

 

With that cleared up, yeah, fix teh educations!

[Wyhe]

I agree that grades aren't everything to a student,but many educators & parents tend to believe otherwise.

 

They seem to have the concept that by getting a diploma/decree, one will have a good future.If either one is not obtained,the child may suffer during his/her adult live.

 

However,that concept is very wrong.Some people can have successful careers,like pilots.Piloting an aeroplane is not something one learns in school or get a diploma from.One needs skills, a good sense of direction & good eyesight to suceed.Some people can make a living out of acting.Acting may be aught in schools as a minor subject & later taught with much more emphasis in acting schools,but education wise,not much is needed other than good speaking skills.

 

In conclusion,I believe that we shuold work on our grades & find our talents.Thus,should we ever fail in our studies,we could do a non-academic career based on our indiviual abilities.

[Professor Cobra]

They show how we understand material, not learn it. If a child can't learn like the rest, then he is useless in the real world.