Amelia, straight “A” student, transferred to a new high school her senior year. The grading policy at her new school was pass or fail. Not knowing this, Amelia turned in her first official English paper.
When she got her paper back the next day it said “FAIL” in bright red ink. She was devastated. Amelia thought she could impress her new English teacher with her superb writing technique. Towards the end of class Amelia went up to her teacher and asked how and why she failed her paper. The teacher simply stated that it was not passing material.
Later that night at dinner Amelia was scolded for her appalling appearance during English class. Amelia went into her new school feeling good about her past accomplishments, and looking forward to her future ones. About two weeks into new school year Amelia finally was told that the grading system was not the same as her original school. Amelia finally knew that her paper was a B+ material instead of “A” and was counted as a “FAIL”. If she would have known about the grading policy earlier, Amelia would have taken more time to get a better score.Changing the grading policies within in our school is a bad idea.
To begin with, changing the grading system will make classes harder to pass. Smarter, well behaved students will not be looked at as “Magnificent Students”; they will simply be looked at as normal. Most students would like to be thought of as “Outstanding” rather than “Average”. Also colleges will have a harder time choosing the students that they would like attending their school. There are many reasons for this. One being that pass or fail doesn’t give students a chance.
Meaning that most students receive C’s or B’s, which is perfectly normal, and with pass or fail grading students will either have to get A’s or fail. Almost all colleges look for the grades of students and their ACT and SAT scores. Most students rely on their everyday work and grades simply because they are not good at taking tests. Without letter grades students will be pushed out of their comfort zones with relying on test scores. Hardworking students will not be acknowledged for their stupendous work.This will lead to self-esteem issue.
Meanwhile, teachers won’t be able to treat students appropriately for their standards in advanced classes. Without letter grades teachers will not be able to determine whether students are qualified for advanced classes. Advanced classes will aide students into not having such an enormous bill for schooling. Teachers will also be frowned upon by both parents and students.
More importantly, teachers do enough of work for our society and schools.They work hard to give the best education possible; they do not need the stress of trying to electrify parents and students. Lastly there will be no diversity; everybody will be looked at as equal intelligence. Clearly there are geniuses and there are normal intelligent people, so why make us all look equal? Eventually, students will become depressed, aggravated, and exasperated.
Students who care about their grades will shows signs of depression when they are not making the classes they try so hard to get into. This will result in many counseling visits.Grades in general stress teens out. When you try so hard to succeed in something, and fail, it hits the heart.
Letter grades make school work a lot easier for students to handle. With letter grades teens can at least get a C and feel that they are doing well in school. As a result having a pass or fail grading system will end up crushing student dreams and demolish chances for many individuals. Changing grading policies is not a good idea simply because, classes will be harder to pass, harder to hand out, and students will be infuriated.
