I used to be outraged that grades were conferred on my children based on COMPLIANCE rather than mastery of material. For example, in high school, one son missed an early assignment which was quite tangential to the physics course, by forgetting to cut out a news story related to physics. His teacher recorded his grade for that day as ZERO. Any amount of math awareness will inform you that no matter, after that, my son showed mastery of the material, his grade could never reflect his knowledge.
It's always troubled me - this physics teacher was also a football coach. In a not-uncommon way, my mind replays my converation with this teacher. Should I have used a football analogy suggesting that a failed down would diminish the subsequent score of the next touchdown?
Today, I realize that it was not just compliance. The meta message that's most damaging is the assumption that kids are not motivated by the learning itself. The carrot is the GRADE, not the excitement of understanding, discovery and competence.
It occurs to me that in this environment we are denigrating knowledge and elevating credential-seeking.
Now our students, having participated in this system, see no motivation after graduation to read as they get no credit for it and have been conditioned away from seeking it for its own sake.
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