Summary Of Grades And Money By Steven Vogel

A Response to Steven Vogel’s “Grades and Money” In “Grades and Money,” Steven Vogel explains some of his main concerns with the education system today, particularly how student’s and teacher’s views of grades has changed. Vogel tells us that when he was in college, no one talked about their grades or even took them as seriously as many students do today. He states that everyone was more concerned about learning rather than the grade they received. Nowadays, Vogel believes that students obsess about their grades because better grades means a higher GPA, which ultimately leads to more money. He is concerned because students do not take risks, such as taking a harder but beneficial class, but instead take an easier class to maintain a higher

When searching for colleges, one of the most crucial things I look at is the cost of tuition. A higher GPA means that tuition will be lower because of scholarship money. This instantly links grades to money in my head. On the contrary, Vogel tells us that when he was in high school and college, he did not think like this at all. He tells us that when he found out about President Clinton proposing to grant tax deductions for tuition to all B average college students, “something about it felt wrong to me” (p.102, paragraph 3). Vogel writes that when he asked why the GPA is important, he was told that “it’s necessary for getting into a good postgraduate school, which is in turn important for getting a good job, which is important for making lots of money” (p.103, paragraph 5). Vogel argues that “nothing is important for itself. Except, of course, money. It’s money that’s the crux of it” (p.103, paragraph 6). As a student, I can strongly relate to this argument. I was always taught that i need to do well in school, so that I can get a quality job after college to be able to support my family. I feel like, in a sense, education is nothing more than a twelve year test, then another four year test someone must take in order to receive a financially stable job to support his or her family and pay the bills. But I also believe that in some situations, such as mine, this

Vogel argues that, “If grades are money, then learning is a cost -- a painful effort one undergoes only for the reward it produces. That the learning might itself be the reward -- which is what we say about education -- makes no sense or is sentimental rubbish” (p.104, paragraph 11). Education has changed from what it used to be when Vogel was in school. When he was a college student, back in the seventies, “people I knew made it a point to not talk about their grades” (p.102, paragraph 1). He goes on to state that he never knew what even his close friends grades were, but they all graduated and went on to have good jobs. I think that this shows that no one cared about their grades as much, as long as they graduated, because they focused on learning the concepts or ideas taught in the class. Today, I can attest to struggling through some classes in high school and not actually putting in the effort and trying to learn from the class. A lot of the time, I can become too focused on keeping my 4.0 GPA, which is not a negative thing, but it gets in the way of me truly learning concepts for my long term