Argumentative Essay: Should Students Abolish Grades?

As society moves into the twenty-first century, it must closely assess its system of performing things. Where better to start looking than current students at Zurich International School (ZIS)? Students fear failure and bad grades. This makes students have less grit and diminishes the quality of students’ thinking, all of which make learning more harder. A straightforward solution will be to eliminate grades altogether. ZIS should abolish grades because it will allow students to learn more without the stress of grades,make school more fair, and increase the reliability and accuracy of giving meaningful feedback . Without grades, students will have less stress upon them from their parents and teachers. Grades cause stress on students making

An “Exceeding Expectations” does not tell any information about what they can do, what she understands, where they need help, and how they can improve next time. This shows that grades are not reliable to give meaningful information to a student. A study done by Kirschenbaum shows that a test or an assignment may even be given two different grades by a single teacher who reads it at two different times (Kirschenbaum,1971). In short grades show a fake precision. The reason why teachers evaluate students is to give them good meaningful feedback that allows students to learn more and make them better after. Grades are an inadequate means of achieving that because they are not helping students to internalize and work toward meeting high standards, but that is most likely to happen when they “experience success and failure not as reward and punishment, but as information” (Bruner 1961, p. 26). Grades also do not define intelligence, it just defines how well a person memorizes facts, and how good one person is at school. Plus schools are very specific on how they expect you to answer and do not measure one's vast intelligence. ““Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven.” - Edward de Bono”(Telegraph). This shows how creativity is ignored in favour of expected