Grades

 Grades...ah..the one thing that all students seem to strongly dislike whereas teachers seem to adore. Numbers or letters, I’m positive every child has had a phase where they wished grades didn’t matter...perhaps even, exist. But obviously, a world without grades would be absolutely ridiculous...right?

Grades were designed to present how well a student performs academically. It was made to show how well a student can learn a concept and apply it in their work. Good grades get harder to achieve as you progress through school and they can affect a students chances in getting into a good college. This is what makes them so stressful. In an interview, it was said that approximately 61% of middle schoolers in America got stressed and anxious over grades and 75% reported that they were stressed by the overbearing amounts of school work. Now what can stress lead to? It can cause heart diseases, depression, Asthma, Alzheimer’s disease and more. Grades can also affect a students self esteem and can make them feel isolated. 

However, grades aren’t all that bad. Without grades, there would be no pushing factor to motivate students to achieve their full potential. It teaches students what they did wrong and helps them get ready for the real world. It also eliminates unhealthy competition among high achievers. In addition, grades show students which subjects their lacking in and which they are strong on, so they could individually focus on them to get higher scores. 

Overall, I think the disadvantages outweigh the advantages and human’s, especially children, cannot handle lot of stress as it can have a large toll on their physical health, as well as their mental health. My advice would be to completely eliminate the whole idea of ‘pass / fail’ and just give feedback instead. Another tip would be for students to do reflections and write how they could improve on their work. This could help them understand what they did wrong, in a much healthier way and it has a higher chance of them improving. Society, if you are reading this, don’t take grades too seriously. Think about it...which matters more to you? Your child’s mental health or a letter/ number determining how fluent they are in a subject, which they would probably forget about 10 years later along the line?