The graded journey - university learning without grades

College Student Journal, Dec, 2002 by J'Anne Ellsworth

A proactive journey, professor and students working together could build and strengthen academia. At risk are historic norms supporting college for the elite, and the professor as fountain of wisdom. This article asks us to review those myths, and in the decade ahead, free ourselves to initiate a system that is worthy of our finest minds.

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The annual journey is in progress. Like every Odysseus, the unknown stretches before ,students, uncharted waters, perils, and the prize. Not all have the same destination or goals, but each hopes for completion, and many deck themselves in the marks of high GPA's to show their stout heartedness.

We professors prepare to man the realms of Schylla and Charibdus. It is time honored. Many things in an education resemble the proverbial spot between a rock and a hard place, none any more surely than grades. Who of us, in our historic robes has not faced down the tyranny of the curve and won? So too, must this year's adventurers. Of course, we all know the inscrutable value of an `A'. In our GPA are those grades that are earned and unearned, those we cheated for and those we got cheated receiving. The B in Chemistry I barely grasped, and the A in Biology, a good joke on the professor--since I knew more than he did. The `A' in French was a cheat all the way around, since the curve allowed me, a dysfunctional speaker and reader, to surpass other students. It was the worst of times ... but I digress.

Must a professor maintain the rocky course where half the class will dash their hopes against the impossibility of the curve? Are we the gate keepers, the St. Peter who knows who may pass? Only a few of the many who will be sucked into the turgid waters. Many professors announce the perils ahead. "Look around you, for the person sitting next to you will be gone by next year. Only half of you will survive and I assure you, half of you will flunk. I will be grading on the curve." This same sort of professor may visit the faculty senate to shame others for grade inflation, descrying the soft position of educators who care about student ratings. We have the ability to determine the hearing of a newborn with a probe, and cannot yet distinguish course knowledge with any more sophistication than Mendelian math?

Taking a similar sounding position, in the syllabus these like minded `profs' declare war on tardy students. Attendance is used as a rapier in the battle with those who let life interfere with the Herculean tasks at hand. With a few keystrokes, the wording deftly sucks the pretender into the maelstrom. Few ships will right themselves, once the waves of homesickness or flu weakens resolve. We justly do battle with students who attempt to survive the initiation rights of adulthood at the same time they attempt a formal education. It is not often a professor's concern that students are bereft on high seas. We can take no thought of how life impacts learning, neither assume blame, for it is time honored, losing half of those who embark on the pilgrimage. Perhaps the mentality of scarcity has its worthy niche in the telling of the tale.

Is it the calling of the best universities to support survival of the fittest? When these first classic tales of mythic proportions, like the Iliad were written, we lost huge forces in battle. Now, with surgical precision, we can wage wars and lose less than a dozen soldiers. Do we, the intelligentsia, care less for the safety of students who embark on the semester with us than a Marine Drill Sergeant cares for his charges?

Some professors choose to be a part of the trek, rather than a spot on the map to be dreaded. They believe in and thrill to the idea that students come to learn with excitement and energy that Can be shared and multiplied as we spend our 15 weeks together. These intellectual guides, describing the perils of the expedition, suggest an alternative, a sensible route to the worded, heightening the potential for learning. They care for students, and stand as beacons, guides, facilitators and mentors, not tormentors (Kohn, 1999).

Yes, it is true that we learn--that some of us learn--through anxiety and high stakes pressures. It is also true that some students do not belong on the journey. We see them every year (Ames, 1990; Raffini, 1993). As professionals, we need not "dash" their hopes, but can steer them to dreams that belong to them, to futures that better fit their strengths. If we do not visualize positive "portents for the future", we, who can chart the course of a probe to Mars, surely can help students chart ascent toward success rather than failing them. What is the worth of a person's future? The newspapers splashed cynicism when we lost contact with the Martian probe, but students lose their way and disappear without a byline.

In building relationship, professing, sharing the pilgrimage, professors have all the power and opportunity needed to make a difference in lives, young and old. Some students fail, while some self select and stop coming to class. Some have life crises and personal tragedies that close the door on a semester or academia. Many students knew from the beginning that a course of study was not best, but for some reason, ignored personal passion to pursue another's vision or were slow to find self. Some begin a career for prestige, for money, to be close to a significant other.