Gordon: Turning grading into growing
Friday, April 15, 2011
The Yale Daily News
The Marquis de Sade could not have invented a more artificially cruel way to introduce children into the realities of life than to create a system which tells children they have achieved "failure".
There is no "failure" in life. No one who gets divorced says "I was a a failure at marriage". No one who gets a speeding ticket or is involved in an auto accident says "I failed at driving."
The passivity of educators in acquiescing to this sadistic system makes them complicit.
I persuaded an entire faculty to vote to replace "failure" with "no credit" on report cards only to find that their voted will was rejected by the computerized grading program which could not replace "failure" as a category with an alternative.
Adults need to think long and hard about the life-long destructive impact of this evaluation tool on the spirits of our youngest and tenderest and dearest.
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