Posted in Homeschooling
Introduction
An anonymous commenter named Trey left a comment in response to my post, Where Did We Get Grades? I don't take anonymous commenters very seriously unless they leave their e-mail address with their comments. Unless bloggers can follow up with commenters by e-mail or blog, there's no way to carry on a dialog because anyone can claim to be Trey in a future response. Still, he was respectful (save the caps) and I appreciate his desire to engage and not just blindly agree with everything I say. Here's what he said:
First, as a matter of clarification, school grades and performance grades have always run the risk of being confused with each other in such a discussion, so I think I need to reitterate that I was talking about school grades -- first grade, second grade, and so on. I believe Trey's comments were addressing both, and though they're part of the same system, they're not interchangeable. One classifies a child's overall level, another quantifies their performance within that level.
Competition, But At What Cost?
Although I understand Trey's point about grades promoting competition, I disagree. First of all, not all competition is healthy. Children naturally compare themselves, but when they do, they are looking for affirmation and self-esteem. They want to know where they stand in relation to the others and that standing impacts their overall worth. When you have a family with the smart one and the pretty one, what's left for child number three? On a side note, I think that's why Christians have such a hard time accepting God's love. We see that we're not the prettiest or the smartest and so we see no cause for God to love us. He loves us just the same.
I choose not to encourage a system that reinforces part of the world's "beauty and brains" method of human worth estimation. This is something my wife and I are really careful about communicating with our children. Ryan was an invalid and he was extremely precious to God. We loved him and we learned so much in terms of how God loves us. The more we learn to approach each other with that agape love, the less performance really matters. Does that mean learning is immaterial? Of course not. Learning and growth should be a pattern throughout their lives. While on one hand we know that performance and competition brings out excellence, on the other we have to recognize that children often link their performance to their lovability, and that's something I don't want to encourage.
School Grades As Barriers
I also would argue that school grades can actually limit a child's potential. I know a homeschooling couple that was teaching their son Algebra because he had an interest in finding out the answers for some problems he had discovered. Someone adhering to the school grade system would say, "You're 8 years old. You aren't ready for this yet. Wait a couple of years." Wait for what? He was ready and they took advantage of the opportunity.
As another example, in the Free Science e-Newsletter for July -- which should be coming out soon -- I talk about going into basic geometry with my 7 year-old son as part of measuring rainfall. Why? Because his mind was asking questions about how many drops of rain were falling outside. Further, he understands the concepts I taught him. Therefore, I refuse to harness my kids to the idea they are past first grade, should be at second grade, and aren't yet ready for third grade material.
Let's look at it from physical education. Having more than one child, I realize that there is no standard age by which a child will progress from crawling to walking. The crawling phase can hit at 6 months or it can hit at 12 or later. And it can be a few days to a year before they start pulling themselves up and start cruising. Should their mental education follow some stilted, arbitrary order when their physical education did not?
Crude, But Effective
Furthermore, I don't think that grading performance (A through F) is evil, just that it is crude. What's the purpose of grading performance? The simple answer, as Trey pointed out, is to track whether your child is learning the material presented. But why did we begin using a grading system with points and averages? It was necessary for a teacher to use them to track the progress of the students in an objective manner. That crude system is effective when you have 40 students jammed in a room with one teacher who is doing good to remember names. Is it required when a parent has 5 children? Maybe not. Some parents I know log each score on each quiz and dutifully tally them at the quarters, semesters, and years. Some don't. It depends on the parent and what they believe works best with their child.
On the other hand, nailing a child with an F for failure could motivate them to do better. However, in my experience, it can also brand them with failure, especially if they aren't ready for the material. My friend Nancy recently quoted Raymond Moore, who says, "Better Late Than Early
." Children are dynamic. One aspect of their development may lag behind while other aspects are far ahead. Imposing arbitrary standards on them is not only wrong, but potentially damaging to a child's psyche.
Again, by extension, I am not advocating an abandoning of all standards. To take the analogy further, a 4 year-old child not knowing how to walk is not normal and that child needs to be examined to see how parents can help the progression. Parents can discern when things are not within the parameters of development. If necessary, standardized tests can confirm or disprove their perceptions, but without using it to put pressure on the child to do better.
What's The Message?
The underlying issue is what is best for the child. There will be places and times for competition to gauge their abilities and performance in their areas of interest. Some homeschoolers excel in science, spelling, and geography, as national competition has proven. But that's a unique competition that the parent can monitor and, if necessary, intervene to keep their child from basing their worth on it. My kids naturally want to please me and they know I want them to learn and understand as much as they can. I can use scores on periodic exams to track their absorption of the material, but only as proof of my overall perception of how that child is doing. Under no circumstances am I going to use it to motivate them. Behind every A that my children may earn, there's a subtext that says, "You don't want to be a failure, do you?" Ugh, no thanks.
Conclusion
While performance grades are effective under the right circumstances, over-emphasis and use as a basis of self-esteem walks the child into a minefield of problems. Similarly, use of school grades puts limitations on children and may hamper their development. By the same token, a child who lags behind in an area for a while mentally may always view their abilities as sub-standard. By moving away from an emphasis on school grades and performance grading, we allow our children to develop at their own pace and with their own unique skills and abilities, producing a child that is healthy, emotionally balanced, and ready to take their place in their areas of interest.
An anonymous commenter named Trey left a comment in response to my post, Where Did We Get Grades? I don't take anonymous commenters very seriously unless they leave their e-mail address with their comments. Unless bloggers can follow up with commenters by e-mail or blog, there's no way to carry on a dialog because anyone can claim to be Trey in a future response. Still, he was respectful (save the caps) and I appreciate his desire to engage and not just blindly agree with everything I say. Here's what he said:
I like grades because it assists in healthy competition. Children compare themselves in order to see where they fit in, where they excell, and where they are behind. I think this is a good thing as healthy competition brings out our best. When we give grades, we are testing how much the student learned as well as HOW WELL THE CURRICULUM AND TEACHER TAUGHT!!!! That second part is very important too. Just thought I would post a little kind disagreement here. Great post, I just have another perspective.
First, as a matter of clarification, school grades and performance grades have always run the risk of being confused with each other in such a discussion, so I think I need to reitterate that I was talking about school grades -- first grade, second grade, and so on. I believe Trey's comments were addressing both, and though they're part of the same system, they're not interchangeable. One classifies a child's overall level, another quantifies their performance within that level.
Competition, But At What Cost?
Although I understand Trey's point about grades promoting competition, I disagree. First of all, not all competition is healthy. Children naturally compare themselves, but when they do, they are looking for affirmation and self-esteem. They want to know where they stand in relation to the others and that standing impacts their overall worth. When you have a family with the smart one and the pretty one, what's left for child number three? On a side note, I think that's why Christians have such a hard time accepting God's love. We see that we're not the prettiest or the smartest and so we see no cause for God to love us. He loves us just the same.
I choose not to encourage a system that reinforces part of the world's "beauty and brains" method of human worth estimation. This is something my wife and I are really careful about communicating with our children. Ryan was an invalid and he was extremely precious to God. We loved him and we learned so much in terms of how God loves us. The more we learn to approach each other with that agape love, the less performance really matters. Does that mean learning is immaterial? Of course not. Learning and growth should be a pattern throughout their lives. While on one hand we know that performance and competition brings out excellence, on the other we have to recognize that children often link their performance to their lovability, and that's something I don't want to encourage.
School Grades As Barriers
I also would argue that school grades can actually limit a child's potential. I know a homeschooling couple that was teaching their son Algebra because he had an interest in finding out the answers for some problems he had discovered. Someone adhering to the school grade system would say, "You're 8 years old. You aren't ready for this yet. Wait a couple of years." Wait for what? He was ready and they took advantage of the opportunity.
As another example, in the Free Science e-Newsletter for July -- which should be coming out soon -- I talk about going into basic geometry with my 7 year-old son as part of measuring rainfall. Why? Because his mind was asking questions about how many drops of rain were falling outside. Further, he understands the concepts I taught him. Therefore, I refuse to harness my kids to the idea they are past first grade, should be at second grade, and aren't yet ready for third grade material.
Let's look at it from physical education. Having more than one child, I realize that there is no standard age by which a child will progress from crawling to walking. The crawling phase can hit at 6 months or it can hit at 12 or later. And it can be a few days to a year before they start pulling themselves up and start cruising. Should their mental education follow some stilted, arbitrary order when their physical education did not?
Crude, But Effective
Furthermore, I don't think that grading performance (A through F) is evil, just that it is crude. What's the purpose of grading performance? The simple answer, as Trey pointed out, is to track whether your child is learning the material presented. But why did we begin using a grading system with points and averages? It was necessary for a teacher to use them to track the progress of the students in an objective manner. That crude system is effective when you have 40 students jammed in a room with one teacher who is doing good to remember names. Is it required when a parent has 5 children? Maybe not. Some parents I know log each score on each quiz and dutifully tally them at the quarters, semesters, and years. Some don't. It depends on the parent and what they believe works best with their child.
On the other hand, nailing a child with an F for failure could motivate them to do better. However, in my experience, it can also brand them with failure, especially if they aren't ready for the material. My friend Nancy recently quoted Raymond Moore, who says, "Better Late Than Early
." Children are dynamic. One aspect of their development may lag behind while other aspects are far ahead. Imposing arbitrary standards on them is not only wrong, but potentially damaging to a child's psyche. Again, by extension, I am not advocating an abandoning of all standards. To take the analogy further, a 4 year-old child not knowing how to walk is not normal and that child needs to be examined to see how parents can help the progression. Parents can discern when things are not within the parameters of development. If necessary, standardized tests can confirm or disprove their perceptions, but without using it to put pressure on the child to do better.
What's The Message?
The underlying issue is what is best for the child. There will be places and times for competition to gauge their abilities and performance in their areas of interest. Some homeschoolers excel in science, spelling, and geography, as national competition has proven. But that's a unique competition that the parent can monitor and, if necessary, intervene to keep their child from basing their worth on it. My kids naturally want to please me and they know I want them to learn and understand as much as they can. I can use scores on periodic exams to track their absorption of the material, but only as proof of my overall perception of how that child is doing. Under no circumstances am I going to use it to motivate them. Behind every A that my children may earn, there's a subtext that says, "You don't want to be a failure, do you?" Ugh, no thanks.
Conclusion
While performance grades are effective under the right circumstances, over-emphasis and use as a basis of self-esteem walks the child into a minefield of problems. Similarly, use of school grades puts limitations on children and may hamper their development. By the same token, a child who lags behind in an area for a while mentally may always view their abilities as sub-standard. By moving away from an emphasis on school grades and performance grading, we allow our children to develop at their own pace and with their own unique skills and abilities, producing a child that is healthy, emotionally balanced, and ready to take their place in their areas of interest.
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