The American education system is flawed. This is an unarguable fact. There can’t be a single person who believes this education system is perfect. I know most of anyone. I have suffered at the hand of this education system psychologically and mentally. Last night I was awake until one a.m. to try to improve my grades and finish my work. Students need to stop suffering. Schools can do that by completely dissolving grades and AP/honors classes as a whole.
First off, removing grades from schools would allow students to completely pursue what they want to pursue. As a student of West High, which is the #1 high school in Iowa in academics, the bar has been set very high for me. So high that I haven’t been given an option at all of what I want to do with my education. Out of my 7 periods, four are APs, something I need to stay on track with all the other kids in my grade, and one is French and one is Music, two classes that are pretty much required for a lot of colleges. That leaves me with one class. One period that I can do what I want with. This is not enough time. Students need to be able to do what they want to do, which is impossible with the current system of AP classes.
The most obvious result of a disappearance of grades would be a decrease in stress among students. As a student enrolled in 4 AP classes, I always have endless heaps of work to do. And when I don’t get something done, when I forget about a single thing, I break. I fall apart. And I have yet to figure out how to put myself back together. In fact, I’m probably speaking from the lowest point in my life, because of the fact that I missed a few assignments months ago. The high pressure that’s been placed upon me has snowballed, and became a torture where I can’t find the motivation to get anything done. If I didn’t have to worry about my grades at all, if I could just pass, without getting an A or a B, everything would be just fine.
There are some arguable reasons why grades are necessary. For example, determining how effective schools are. But even something as simple as a pass/fail system can still quantify that. The biggest counterargument is that the system for applying to jobs and colleges is weakened. However, they’re also getting strengthened by the other end of the spectrum. While yes, the best students academically would struggle with this new system to consistently get into colleges, those colleges will be forced to accept other, lower level students, and because other colleges will stumble upon elite students out of luck, more colleges will be considered more elite. By lowering the bar of the best students, the worst students become better. It evens the playing field. This is also a reflection of the world outside education. When it comes to getting promotions and higher level jobs, it doesn’t come from your grades. It comes from your life skills and people skills. I mean, Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college to make a multibillion dollar empire. His education didn’t matter, his life skills mattered.
Despite all of that, none of what I’ve said is even the biggest issue with grades. I mean, for students it might be, but not for politicians and educators. The biggest issue with grades is that it accompanies a point system to education that undercuts not only what students think school should be for (learning about what ones options are in life) but also breaks the principle of what politicians think school should be for (teaching students how to be members of society). It’s impossible to ensure students remember knowledge and permanently learn things if they want to just get a number out of it.
I couldn’t be more speaking from my heart when I tell you how much grades have injured me and my generation. As you walk into life, one of the very first parts of society you encounter is a competition over who is the smartest. It needs to stop. Adoption of a pass/fail system fixes this problem almost completely. Level the playing field. Fix this flawed educational system.
