The Numbers Game

Grades were due last week. The way it works these days, points are entered online for assignments and classwork. The grading program adds up the points for you and, presto! automatic grades! Sounds easy, but since I only teach one graded course, I haven't found time to figure out how to enter everything for the special "add it up" function. Instead I sweat through an arduous process in which I add up points on pieces of paper.

Is all this necessary? Luckily, the points I add up usually result in the grade I would have given the student anyway. It doesn't take long in many cases to figure out whether a student is interested enough to contribute to class work and really thinks when doing written assignments. But I go through this lengthy numbers process anyway-- perhaps in order to justify the grades to myself, parents and students. I notice that some students have mastered this numbers game. They miss class for weeks, but come back very apologetic, make up missed written work, ask for make up work and somehow get the points to add up favorably. Other students fail the numbers game: they attend class more regularly but don't do all the assignments and miss key class times, like the day of a quiz, or don't ask for make up work. More than half of my students appear mystified by their less -than-ideal grades: " I was here," or "I got an A, didn't I?" And there's also the issue of innovation. We tend to grade higher for those who learn what the teacher teaches in the way the teachers or textbook recommend. What about the student who doesn't agree, who actually cares enough to disagree with the textbook method?

Philosophically, I have questions. What is this system preparing our students for ? Sometimes it seems as if it's preparing them for a kind of Chekovian bureaucracy, where employees do the least amount of work possible to enable them to get paid and continue in a job. How do you translate into numbers a students curiosity, interest level, potential, or improvement? If you give everyone an A regardless of their effort or quality of work, is that fair to those who tried harder than others? It's almost impossible to give what I would consider a fair, just, grade. Yes, it helps for students to have goals in a course, to feel the work is important. But where is there the space to relate one's grade and numbers to one's deeper self, one's life?

An attempt to address the whole child is covered in this district by a Citizenship grade and Comment Codes ("consistently improving, a pleasure to have in class, good participation"). What do the grades, citizenship rating,and somewhat condescending comments accomplish? I fear we;ve set up a model of a competitive society in which winning is paramount. We love contests, raffles, sports, awards. "And the winning number is..." gets our adrenaline pumping. "What did you get?" the students ask each other, followed by a deflated shrug or a victorious smirk.

The political fallacy of the ancient world was "might makes right," which is now perhaps being replaced by "winner takes all." Small surprise that nations can't agree on climate control or arms reduction when embedded in our education are beliefs about being an adult: win over the other guy and more is the same as better.

How can we escape the focus on the numbers, the winning over someone else, or the "victory" over the unit requirements, and instead focus on actual education?