The Weaponization of Grades
Whatever else they might do, grades punish students who can’t, won’t, or for whatever reason, don’t comply with teachers’ instructions.
From 2014 to 2018, I worked with men incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison to develop and teach a GED prep class. Together, we wrote curriculum, co-taught lessons, and examined students’ work. Unlike my high school English classes, which the law requires students 16 and under to attend, our GED students showed up voluntarily, but still, we had a hard time getting students to complete and turn in their classwork and homework. At school, I spend a lot of time talking with students about points — how to earn them, why they lost them — because I rely heavily on the points system in my persuasion practices. Do this, it’s worth a lot of points! Don’t want to do that? What if I give you some points? Even so, many kids do opt-out, righteously or not, forfeiting their points and taking the F. It struck me as very obviously absurd to take made up points away from grown men who live in cages, though, and when I returned to teaching in public high school, my cognitive dissonance around grading persisted and worsened.
Whatever else they might do, grades punish students who can’t, won’t, or for whatever reason, don’t comply with teachers’ instructions…
