Everyone knows that feeling. That feeling of sweaty palms and queasy stomach when the teacher announces that they're done grading the test. That sense of dread as you slowly turn the paper over. That drop in your stomach once you see the red markings, the big, angry "F" on the top right corner of the page. That thought that inevitably crosses your mind as you quickly shove the paper into your backpack before you have to look at it again, the thought that your class grade is that much lowered, which will in turn lower your GPA and hinder whatever plans you have - in short, failing this test demonstrated how you just fail at life. Over dramatic? Absolutely. Applicable to most students? Definitely.
"Failure is not an option" is the motto subliminally pounded into our heads as students of the American school system. An "A" stands for good work, excellence, success. "F" stands for, well, failure. Yet if what we discussed in class is true, if failure is truly the only way people learn, my question is how well is a 4.0 student learning, or is he/she simply regurgitating knowledge, demonstrating already acquired skills? This system that penalizes failure pervades our educational system, from marking up papers with red colored ink to idolizing the GPA. This house of cards comes a'tumbling down in the face of this new information, but how can we build a more solid house?
I have a sense that many teachers truly understand the importance of failure and are as frustrated as the students are with the state of the system. Yet I always hated when professors would say "Don't worry so much about grades, it's more about learning, it doesn't matter what grade you get as long as you learn as much as you can from this class". I wanted to stand up and say to them "Don't tell me not to worry when this arbitrary number/letter I get from you determines what organizations I can participate in, whether I can study abroad, what grad school I attend, how successful I am at finding a job! It might not be a big deal for you but it damn well is for me, so don't you dare treat it flippantly". As you can tell, I take my grades seriously, but only because the system has taught me to view them that way.
What can we do to fix it? How do you make room for failure? Should you reward failure? How can the actual learning take precedence over a number or a letter?
Sometimes I wonder if the first step is to talk about how we define "failure." To me, failure is, as you defined above, "F" or zero. But I have found, to my astonishment, that students define a B or even an A minus as a failure! Why is it so all or nothing? It's like we have all come to believe Ricky Bobby's motto: "If you ain't first, your last."
ReplyDelete*and even Ricky Bobby would know that should have been "you're" not "your"--sorry 'bout that!
ReplyDeleteOMG you are spot on. I hate it when teachers say " don't worry about grades" because obviously we are going to worry about grades! They understand the system just like we do, so why do they tell us not to worry. Grades are so random and it's not fair. Perhaps they don't understand the power they wield with that little red pen and how much pressure we put on ourselves to get the "A" grade. Everyone always says that your college grades end up not mattering in the end, but we aren't in the end! WE ARE STILL IN COLLEGE AND GRADES DO MATTER TO US NOW... just because one day they wont be important doesn't mean we wont stress now! GAH i just feel your frustration so much!!
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