I believe that our institution’s grading and education systems are merely products of bureaucracy’s increasingly defined role in today’s concomitant society.
I don’t see how these factors are relevant in a more modern culture where education is not nearly as much of a “privilege” as it used to be, or where breakthroughs in technology have allowed us to communicate across the world in milliseconds.
The “evolution” of education refers to the many adaptations made to the education system up to today. Not only does this evolution reflect a growing and ever-changing society, but it also constructs the very foundation of my opinion.
Because of our society’s rapidly growing population, it is constantly getting harder to manage.
This problem leads schools, and Western education systems as a whole, to become more institutions than places to provide an actual learning experience.
Due to what I would refer to as the “bureaucratic effect,” we have developed our system of grading as a way of rating student performance in a scholastic program. It is due to this overly methodical focus that I believe our grading system is flawed.
Instead of absorbing theories and ideas, our methods of grading lead students to focus on the memorization of facts and dates rather than comprehension of their meaning and significance.
The pressure put on by grades is often so overbearing that students feel they must cheat and plagiarize just to make it by.
How then are some so successful at school? Is it their aptitude or their work ethic?
In comparison between the two, I believe that our modern grading system more correctly measures levels of effort and work ethic rather than one’s understanding of certain concepts.
The grading system exists as a way to separate those that will perform better in a bureaucratic society. Successful students have undoubtedly proven that they can study harder, retain certain information, and fill in the correct bubbles on a test slip better than anyone else.
But what exactly does this mean? Does this in fact designate these individuals to be any smarter or more intelligent than their peers?
Certainly not, the grading system merely allows companies and corporations to select individuals that have proven they can flourish in a bureaucratic environment much like school.
I then propose not to abolish the grading system, but rather reorganize it to be less competitive, more fun, less structured, and more meaningful.
Furthermore, we ourselves must focus on the exact reasons that we go to school. Is it to learn; or does education merely exist so that we might obtain a decorated piece of paper with our name on it?