Q3 Blog 2

Grades policy: Students strive for "letters" not knowledge.

            Throughout my life as a student, I have witnessed my classmates copying each others’ homework or the guy sitting behind me trying to sneak his head over my shoulder to see my answer sheet but who barely comes to class and when he or she does, pays attention to everything except the teacher, and ironically is able to get a “passing letter or grade.” Grades were originally made to classify students by excellence; however that authenticity of grades has lost its reputation as many students obtain grades they do not deserve.

The main go of school was to receive and education, and above all knowledge, unfortunately grades do not reflect that anymore. A significant amount of students  go to school to earn a grade so that their parents buy them the things they promised, minimizing the value of grades as their parents believe that because their child received a high grade in class reflects that the child must be an “excellent” student. Then, grades are only used as an incentive by the parents undermining the main point of going to school which is to enrich life with knowledge. That not only affects students themselves, but also affects the educational system itself, as those students who received a high grade but yet do not have the skills are put in advanced placement or honors classes. Then the classes that are supposed to be for those students who actually go to school to gain knowledge are disturbed and held back for the low level students can catch up with the class forcing the teacher to slow down teaching, lowering the amount of lessons that they are supposed to cover.

Students also stop learning and understanding the content of the subject as they only memorize what they need to pass a test without actually obtaining the knowledge because they know longer want to learn, they just want to receive a grade that will get them into their college of interest. After all, the goal of attending to school is lost, since students strive for “grades” not for the real tool that would help them in life regardless of what they do: knowledge.