Why Grades Shouldn't Exist - Alfie Kohn

[@abdullariazkhan8379]

You are the teacher we all need that tries to make us engage rather than threaten us with bad grades/marks

[@theharshtruthoutthere]

The main problem with school system is: it is masons given for their need of slaves. I have never cared about grades, as i seen it clearly how out of logic are these given. Schools ain`t real use and grades are made ups, a fear propaganda, to keep students under control. And true, no thinking, student who dare to think, be aware ridiculous problems heading towards you. School systems = masonic agenda to dumb down mankind. Sadly, they have succeeded, but each of us have a chance to turn it all around: BIBLE. Without the BIBLE and the understanding of it, real life stays unseen, unknown. Ask for truth and allow BIBLE to shine. The only need for school is; basic knowledge: - reading - writing - math - BIBLE After this, no need for further “schooling”.

[@themindset4164]

I got As and Bs on my report card just now and one 63. Before i even walked into my house i knew my parents wouldn't even care about my good grades and would just zoom in on the negative. Sure enough i just got a lecture about how great my grades could've been, and not how good it WAS. And the reason i got a 63 in that class is because of one bad test grade. Went from a C to a D and now my parents are disappointed in me? It's irritating and stupid.

[@Void_Dweller7]

I can relate to a whole other level. They don’t care about the good grades at all. They only care to scold me and chastise me about the bad ones.

[@sthoughtsarchive2791]

Stop looking at your parents as a source of validation. They're just humans And imperfect and just being a part of system that was also imposed in them And now they're trying to do the same To you.

[@dylanprice1978]

I got 62 out of 63 on a math test, got a B.

[@SweetnSour_]

Same, every time I get good grades, they don’t care, they expect the good grades. But now, I have Cs and Ds because my teachers give a boatload of work. But suddenly NOW my parents care about my grades? It’s just giving me anxiety, stress, and I feel like a failure. But nobody cares if my grades are making me sad, they just want me to have all As.

[@crackpointfivelive9418]

@@dylanprice1978 At first I read that as "62%" and I was like, "Huh? 62% isn't a B. Oh wait, he said 62 out of 63, ah that makes sense.... hold up.

[@AJRWilde]

grades are a lazy way to assess competency, I think we all know that

[@Onda_Wilde]

Or rather to increase competition among students. Instead of promoting interests/specializing in certain topics, focusing on different individual talents and motivation to think profoundly.

[@Void_Dweller7]

@@Onda_Wilde **THIS**

[@sthoughtsarchive2791]

@@Onda_Wilde yow that Vampire in you pfp looks hot

[@wallahhabibiiii]

@@Onda_Wilde agreed My parents focus way too much on me topping the class instead of me actually learning

[@zcm007attack]

Grades don't even assess competency. They only assess how well a student abides by an educational bureaucrats one-size-fits-all approach to pedagogy, along with their brazenly superficial and subjective standards of what it means to be a "model student".

[@ferretonaskateboard246]

I'm doing a speach over why Grades don't help in the slightest and the main reason I chose the topic is because their was so much information on it. I just thought it'd be easier, so he's right about choosing the easier path...

[@oscarakre1534]

pun intended xd

[@funny-video-YouTube-channel]

He is correct. I met people who went to private schools without grades or exams in Europe. They all have jobs and are doing well. One alternative thing that we would have is when we could have grades, but the grades would not stop people from going on in their studies. so there is no way to fail and you still can finish school or university with a degree, whichever grades you have. We also need more project and assignment based degrees and replace exams with projects that are completed with percentage points. Like 20-30 projects with a %-grade as a mark for the result.

[@zcm007attack]

One of the most damning reasons to do away with the traditional grading system involves the most prominent reason we have schooling in the first place: preparing students for their lives and careers. Yet in the modern day workplace, NO employer practices a lazy method of assessing competency of their workers with measley letter-ratings in the form of report cards; they offer narrative, elaborative and qualitative feedback in the form of evaluations.

[@overshottyler]

The problem is when programs have limited slot and need to turn students away. How do you decide who gets in and who doesn't?

[@novastar6112]

@@overshottyler Ah yes, we turn to nepotism and brown-nosing! I'm quite serious, when universities have to compare two students equal in grades, they check all of their reference letters and connections and stuff.

[@matheuscabral9618]

grades could be just a measurement for yourself of how well you’re doing

[@eu29lex16]

And those percentage points will become grades, lol.

[@oscarakre1534]

Not only that, grades creates an unhealthy school environment based on the "survival of the fittest" principle. It is easy for the teacher to assign a favorite student, making the assessment uneven. Even in Norway, where I come from with one of the best school systems, they oversee this matter. Suddenly you lose your integrity and motives, just to get "the grade".

[@charleswest6372]

Public schools suck eggs.😮

[@montyferguson4657]

It's one thing to have students who want to learn, but you'll always have those who don't care and would rather be doing something else.

[@jfalkner9834]

Finally, a sensible comment.

[@ethangc081]

Unfortunately, there will be always be students who don’t want to learn and have other things going on in their lives that are not within the school system’s reach. But we should make things better for the students who do.

[@OneEyeGoating]

Unfortunately school's primary reason for existing has nothing to do with learning. It's about paying for high marks for entrance into exclusive schools in order to maintain family wealth or marry-up your child. I don't believe in grading as it is used in a traditional classroom, as the purpose for grades are often misused. They are only a snapshot of the "general" performance of a student at any one given moment in time. The grades should only be used by teachers to help them guide the curriculum and pace of a class. We do need grades (summarized data) because they help us professionals adapt to a class' or individual student's learning ability.

[@AJRWilde]

we don't need grades, at all

[@a.n.6131]

Grades don't even show much about the students' abilities - you're using a very vague and superficial guide.

[@JPinShenzhen]

You are a teacher, for sure. And I agree 100%. I was just arguing with my grade level team today about grading students on a summative project they have coming up. We came to a compromise that we could use a single point rubric to basically make a checklist of achievement and base it solely on each student’s growth. I hate grading students, but they are a necessary data point in our differentiation of instruction in the classroom.

[@JPinShenzhen]

You other two have no idea what you are talking about. It is impossible to formatively assess each student in a class of 35 students on each subject. We need grades to be able to see trends happening amongst the class in order to map our instruction. Otherwise, we are teaching blindly. There isn’t a whole lot of one on one time when you have 35 students in your class. It’s how we grade and how we use those grades that is important.

[@caroldraper5017]

Sudbury Valley School in Mass. has no grades and has been in existence since 1968.

[@young2k15]

I've always loved knowledge and as a high school drop out, I find it acquired that I more knowledgeable than most University graduates. The education doesn't seem to compel most people to retain the majority of the knowledge the acquire.

[@billybatson6834]

How'd you know that you are more knowledgeable than most uni students?

[@young2k15]

Purely anecdotal of course, but when I talk to people whom I know are University Graduates about recent break throughs like light based processing, tritium based batteries or direct communication with the brain through ULF waves I get blank stares. When I talk to them about contemporary geopolitics like the coup in Ukraine and Honduras', or speak of the lies and propaganda perpetuated about the conflict in Syria those try to dismiss me. Finally when I talk about history like the events of the Russian revolution or the multiple wars perpetrated by the US based on lies, or basis for democracy and it's different forms within ancient Greece, to most of those people it comes as a revelation. Majority of the University graduates I have met only care about getting a degree to get a job. The ones that I know that have a love for knowledge general aim to get a post graduate degree.

[@noahjames9457]

@@young2k15 Then you've heard of the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

[@young2k15]

You are the first person to introduce me to this theory or observation. Anecdotally I have found it to be true but I'm not convinced it is only limited to those of lower cognitive ability.

[@DivineHellas]

@@young2k15 exactly the same for me.

[@Liuhuayue]

I wonder who disliked this video. Some teacher afraid of losing their stick in the carrot and stick system, perhaps.

[@Void_Dweller7]

Yup probably. But TBH IMO I think Teachers would benefit from an altered and more efficient school system, that isn’t founded on Letter grades.

[@Void_Dweller7]

Plus the dislike percentage on this video is 2.875% 23/800. So I think the vast majority agree with the content in the video. (Ik you didn’t claim the contrary but I just wanted to mention it)

[@zcm007attack]

Some of those teachers are ones who have somehow managed to ascertain the often-abused luxury of 'tenure'. They get paid no matter what, probably can't get fired no matter what so they stop genuinely caring about their students and find it redundant to offer them a good education in accordance with what their job always entails. Just like all those other people who work in public sector/service whether it be law enforcement, military, health, social services, etc are held to their duties regardless of how long they serve, teachers should be held to the same accountability.

[@HaploidCell]

From what I know, the US is especially bad in the regard of grading because you guys grade every-freaking-thing. Multiple-choise tests, in particular, seem a stressful and unhelpful way of assessing student's abilities.

[@tristantheoofer2]

ye multiple choice tests are just narrowing shit down and having basic common sense lul (which is why im fucking amazing at them apparently lol). also i cant do open ended shit and essays (essays are i think too formal for me to understand even tho im in 8th grade lul)

[@Lilliana1]

@@tristantheoofer2 agreed multiple choice has less bias as well. It's generally more fair.

[@tristantheoofer2]

@@Lilliana1 yee

[@alveraalfos9168]

If only schools listened to this. Maybe I wouldn’t be where I am now.

[@NosyHausfrau]

I'm an older returning student. I am watching this because I received an A minus today, in spite of having a 97 percent in the course that I worked very hard on. Because it is a contingency of self worth for me, when my 4.0 barely slipped through my fingers, I was devastated. I think it's safe to say, disproportionately so. I am SO ridiculously down in the dumps over something I don't think is that important. I kid you not, when I was in my 20s and got the news that I had to have cancerous cells removed, I was NOT as upset. How did I get to this place? The emotional pain is so soul crushing that I need to take stock and put a stop to this. Thank you for the perspective. It helped.

[@shin_hell1485]

True, parents pressure me over bad grades and compare me to theirs, i have my strength's and weaknesses and not all learned are not important

[@charumohonbagchi1146]

He's a great teacher 👏👏👏

[@CasperV1982]

My children are unschooled and enjoy learning at their own pace. There's also a school near me which is all play based, life skills, child led, children and teachers are equal, if my children want to go there two days a week I'd be absolutely OK with it

[@madamefayta]

This actually made me tear up, I had a really hard time with grades in school and it just about killed my passion for studying

[@mccarney4207]

My Geometry teacher curves all his tests if the class average is under an 87 and that works really well because the point of his class wasn't the grade, it was growing my skills in not only Geometry, but in studying and test taking. I had a B at the start of the year and I didn't even care. And even though we have grades, we don't have rankings by GPA because the school encourages extracurriculars and service projects more than grades.

[@joeysmit4644]

would be great if we could get rid of tests and just replace them with projects. Just give it a pass/fail mark and move on. Dont tell the students what needs to be in the report exactly, let them explore the subject and figure out what needs to be discussed.

[@dhali3122]

word. exams only make me feel miserable

[@movingforward8070]

Such beautiful arguments!

[@jeromerex17]

When I did undergraduate maths degree I chose courses that interested me the most. They happened to be the hardest pure maths courses. Even several bright students thought I was crazy.

[@TheAsianRepublican]

Learning at your own pace is better, but you still need self assessment in order to gradually progress. And self assessment is still a grade to see where you're at, you just don't need to be compared or be competing with others, just self pacing.

[@barbatos3700]

Thank you for speaking this!

[@kristenw.2735]

I went to Hampshire College (no grades!) and now my daughter is in a private school with no grades. LOVE IT.

[@kayleighmcfarland8599]

i love this man

[@ribbrascal]

That's because you're a woke white women who has absolutely zero common sense.

[@rabbitcreative]

@@ribbrascal > That's because you're a woke white women who has absolutely zero common sense. Do you feel better now?

[@boneatled]

The worst part is that its not only the usa that has this problem, as a brazilian i can say that our grading system is basically the same thing but instead of using letters we use numbers

[@carlanderson8799]

Thank you very much Alfie for your knowledge your important advice! You are very logical and wise.

[@countrygamer6096]

I have rarely given my students anything less than 100%, yet their collective behavior has remained constant; unengaged and apathetic. Why is that? Where is this renaissance of learning? Oh, that's right, learning is hard work, and people hate hard work.

[@jfalkner9834]

You are right.

[@passiveinvestor1978]

I agree with much of what he has to say but the only problem would be how do colleges choose who to accept and who to reject?

[@ribbrascal]

Based on "marginalized identities" of course. /anti-woke ex-Democrat

[@smackerlacker8708]

Maybe.... assess the student? Like, you know, the way they should?

[@passiveinvestor1978]

@@smackerlacker8708 but they're dealing with thousands of applicants and it would take an army of recruiters to do that and they don't want to spend the time

[@thesubhumancomedy]

Schack var jättekul för mig när jag var 10-12 år och ganska ensam i Sverige. Sen fick jag hår på kuken och ville annat. Jag var inte bra nog att spela schack mot de bästa, så varför göra?

[@thesubhumancomedy]

Jag fick andra intressen. Sex var nog det största

[@adekaiwamisou]

who are these best schools that don't use grades?

[@magiclampboogiesdown9717]

Students aren’t “addicted” to grades. They work in the system in which they’re compelled and constrained.

[@reprovedcandy]

Sad. I chose a business degree instead of comp sci cause it seemed it would be harder to pass... 2 months into my job out of college, I started learning to code. Now I'm a software engineer full time. Essentially just totally wasted 4 years in college, slowed my career, and blew a bunch of money.

[@annanapstablook5842]

I'm really good at talking about stuff and I understand it better when it's in a convo, or I have to talk about something. But my grades on tests are not the best :( Its just harder for me to answer and understand "written questions" and to write my thoughts down

[@orionpax45]

"It would only make life more complicated for bad teachers that use grades as lever to compel students to do stuff."

[@brazenserpent7]

And then make it to college where the grading system is still in place...

[@Void_Dweller7]

Yes College, I.E;Highschool 2.0

[@doraemon61377]

You can complain how unfair grades are, but grading is and will be here to stay.

[@theexpressedlife3392]

I love this man for his courage tenacity and immense scholarship!

[@lukeaustin4465]

If a student doesn't understand a subject additional instruction is needed, not grades.

[@Kehwanna]

The problem is, our educational systems are dictated by traditionalists that pretty much act like our outdated educational system is infallible and refuse to significantly update it.

[@AfroMedic]

I’m in PA school , this is true , people who trust doctors 100% should think twice

[@geggy310]

last quarter I had my best report card, this quarter I put in the same effort and got my worst ever report card, so that shows

[@thesubhumancomedy]

g7 Hade du piano hemma?

[@cadencook9861]

I think grades are useful for anything below the grade of a C- because that can legitimately show how students to behave and where they struggle or tend to not care however anything C- or above grades are worthless for truly determing intelligence because some of the most intelligent people I personally know are the most lazy as such they would get a C- or whatever because they simply dont want to put in the effort to do the work and I know many people who will get straight A's but will simply ask for help for over half of their work and they really dont understand anything but get the A because they turned in the fully complete assignment. So tell me whos smarter the person who actually understands the subject but gets low gardes due to a lack of effort to do homework or the person who doesnt understand anything about the subject but gets straight A's because they simply do the assignment but dont actually understand any of it and simply just asks for help over and over. You would probably say the smart but lazy person but due to the poor grading system a college will see that one student got straight A's but the other who was really smart but didnt try got a C so they will instead accept the person who got the A's.

[@miguelthealpaca8971]

Not only schools, but universities should get rid of the grading system. But who is radical enough to do that?

[@marcmeinzer8859]

Grades pit the kids against each other in a meaningless competition. They also make the teacher the bad guy who flunks you out. Class rank should be determined numerically by standardized exams administered at the conclusion of each year and scored independently similar to the traditional British system.

[@dravidsukhu2380]

sadly, when you have parents that think all mighty 'A' is what determines the future, things don't turn out well.

[@jfalkner9834]

Just thinking about going to a doctor graduated from a non-grading school.

[@germb747]

Is there such a thing as a legitimate school that doesn't give grades? Also, I think just about every job out there has evaluations of some type that you have to pass to keep your job, so why not get young people in the mindset of being able to pass evaluations? You can't manage what you don't measure.

[@hotpaws_maths_and_science]

0:50 he said the thing

[@notmyname9261]

My main question, and it is a genuine question, is how exactly do these students get into college or university if they have no grade to demonstrate how much they know? When I and my fellow students were applying for university in the UK we had to firstly offer our predicted grades and then had our places confirmed upon receiving our grades that matched the entrance criteria. I agree that chasing grades shouldn't be everything but do they not have a practical use? At the end of the day I think we all agree that someone who wants to become a doctor for example should show that they are highly adept in subjects such as chemistry and biology. How is this effectively measured if not through assessed work and grades?

[@fiddlestickproductions1195]

Alfie Kohn addresses a lot of these ideas in this article: www.alfiekohn.org/article/degrading-de-grading/ I found "Sidebar A" at the bottom interesting and probably most relevant to the questions you raise.

[@notmyname9261]

Fiddlestick Productions Thank you, I'll have to give it a read because this does interest me. I just don't think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to grades, I think there are some good applications but obviously I'm no expert.

[@franniepan]

The assessment of their work could be done via a written statement by the teacher, a portfolio by the student that shows their work; the student could give evidence of their knowledge in written form or via an interview. This obviously takes a lot more effort than simply giving someone an 'A' but it's also much more informative. By the way, many unschoolers (or life learners) who have never even set foot in a school end up with degrees, some of them even with more than one. Once you find something you're truly interested in, nothing will stop you (except for grades maybe.. 😂)

[@MulberryDays]

I mean, for one thing grades are *incredibly poor* indicators of "how much we know."

[@MegaSudjai]

I think grades are over-rated, but not counter-productive. Through exam-like conditions, the learner learns to perform when under pressure, instead of perceiving pressure as something to be feared; to avoid; or 'evil' and 'oppressive'. Learning how to cope with 'failure' helps one to grow and mature, and to persist. That is inner-strength.

[@altaresfrancisrainemart6355]

Maybe some day, i will share this to wake up all student who become toy by a school factory

[@Sbh152]

Why is this still an issue in the educational system 😭 8 years later… it’s sad. We are failing our children, especially our neurodivergent children!

[@daedaimeyez3307]

he's right you know. when I was at cypress depsite already typing at 70WPM I signed up for typing courses because that was an easy A. I have a G.E.D from the state of florida that isn't even any old GPA the scorces page places me in the 96th perentile in science over 50 in math like just all over the place on the rest and yet here I was a clearly gifted student deciding I wanted my life after class to myself and not being stuck with homework so I could actually focus on my interest from outside of school and so everything I did was searching for how not to be stuck filling out so much redundant paperwork. I am too smart for my own good regarding the G.E.D we had to fight them for special accommodations for me there was someone at test cite but he was was dragging his heels but we figured out the way they formatted people's emails at OCPS to email his boss and go over his head to get the hold up resolved and yeah I stumbled into the building and a couple of weeks later got results and the things that fascinate me Is I wasn't studying for the whole 18 months after i dropped out. A year and a half had gone by without me studying the stuff i was in school when I tested and I still beat almost everyone in the state who ever took the test on science and and did not too bad on math either. but yeah The whole system was too much bullshit for me and I couldn't take it and dropped out at 17 and then took the Test and I can proudly say of the G.E.D Veni Vidi Vici I came I saw I conquererd.

[@eu29lex16]

Grading only factually exists in most countries to decide who gets the most funding during college.

[@thestraycat69]

This is agreed yet we keep damaging ourselves in the long run. It's stupid.

[@rabbitcreative]

> This is agreed yet we keep damaging ourselves in the long run. It's stupid. Yah. After watching lots of vegan activism, I repeatedly see people say, "I know it's wrong, but it just tastes so good!". We're all addicts.

[@andrewmacdonald5673]

we do live in a society

[@HYDROCARBON_XD]

Measuring learning and knoledge in numbers and letters is as stupid as measuring “attractiveness” with “6/10”s and shit like that

[@mr_melp]

I had a teacher that tried this one semester. We did projects and gave ourselves grades. I literally did jack shit all year and gave myself an A.

[@inunnguaqkjrgaard5640]

Merry And you deserved it!

[@yahairavanmalkenhorst6985]

your loss!

[@freddybell8328]

Merry It won't work unless it is school wide.

[@kevincurrie-knight3267]

Merry, that probably says more about you than it does about the class. Now, it may be that you just really didn't happen to care about the subject. If that was the case, then I'm not sure which is worse: you doing jack shit all year and giving yourself an A, or a teachcer whose job is to coerce you to learn stuff you have no interest in that you learned only for the grade.

[@jakedcruz7057]

He said "and *sometimes* let students pick their own grades"

[@thesubhumancomedy]

I had no will to beat anyone, to win over anyone. That might have been the 'problem'. No They are better than me. We were 4 guys. staying at mine fore one week, and at another in Örby for one week. Damn what we biked, 12 minutes Örby - Whatever that day 11 minutes from Tussmötevägen-

[@charleswest6372]

Kids are being cheated out of their childhood. The talent in them is not brought out in favor of memorizing usless facts.

[@thesubhumancomedy]

I never cared. We analysed each others games. The surroundings

[@matthewleitch1]

What exactly is he suggesting that teachers should do instead? What does 'authentically engage' mean in practice? Teachers have to teach the content someone else has decided should be taught. While they wait for someone to change that, what are they supposed to do if the required content is boring and irrelevant? He refers to 'research' but which exactly does he have in mind? Schools in the UK have been increasing the number of tests given because the research on retrieval practice noticed that more testing is linked to better results in crucial examinations (because retrieving information from memory strengthens memories and increases problem solving ability and generalization).

[@vickydestephano7415]

I hate the chattel pen. I cannot work for them. I don't care about them. The reason to do something is because it improves my life and other lives.

[@FrumpybutSuperSmart]

Grading is a scam

[@ceus90]

"The rules of the society doesn't apply to me. I'll sit in some remote corner of an academic campus, enjoying the benefits of the state and calling for it's destruction because I'm a global citizen." Give up the benefits of the state and beg for food- the way true seeker was expected to before.

[@calippo4202]

I dont quite understand how this applies to Alfies commentary. Tell me if I'm mistaken, but are you suggesting that Alfie ignores the rules of our society? There are many schools following his philosophy in Europe. They do grade, in their final exams, and the students are doing way better compared to other students. Going gradeless is not intrinsically against tue rules of society. We would have to define what these rules are in the first place. It appears to be a universal rule that people like to do the things that are interessting to them. We all have hobbys that we do for that reason. Now he suggests that we should base our teaching on this principle which is way more intuitive and fundermental to human civilisations than an abitrary measuring system brought in 100 years ago.

[@ribbrascal]

And Asians roll their eyes. The Chinese laugh hysterically.

[@zBPS]

yeah well they got 3 inch c*cks, who cares what they think.

[@thesubhumancomedy]

e4 e5

[@thesubhumancomedy]

d4 d5 c4

[@thesubhumancomedy]

Jag hoppas ni känner varandra så bra att det bara är att gå tbx

[@thesubhumancomedy]

Annars vore det hemskt synd

[@JohnVKaravitis]

Grades matter. There is no other way for potential graduate schools or employers to objectively assess a candidate's potential for future performance. Using grades as a carrot/stick is wrong. Using grades to figure out where a student needs to improve is incredibly irreplaceable. So sad that this uninformed and misguided tool thinks otherwise.

[@fiddlestickproductions1195]

I think that's an oversimplification (just like grades are). There are certainly other ways graduate schools and employers can and do objectively assess a candidate's potential for future performance (interviews, tests, etc.). Research suggests interviews are actually more valid predictors of job success than grades, so it's not fair to say that grades are the only objective predictor. And many college admissions officers disagree about the importance of GPA. Some look at them more closely than others. Grades are undoubtedly widespread, but that doesn't mean they're irreplaceable. The fact that pollution is widespread doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't try to reduce it. At the very least, grades can be made more invisible, which helps students (schools like Brown, Hampshire, Reed and others have found practical ways to do this). And I agree that using grades as a carrot/stick is wrong, but how do you give a grade without it acting as a carrot/stick? I think we're kidding ourselves if we think students don't view grades as punishments/rewards. If a student gets a D, they feel bad, as if they've been punished. The D itself provides no other feedback on how they performed or how to improve. A's are just the other side of that coin - students see them as rewards. To the extent that grades do act as punishment/reward (which I think is a huge extent), then they are harmful, according to a large amount of research. It's not the letter grade that students need, it's the feedback. Feedback, when delivered properly, looks much different than just a letter grade and does not act as a punishment or reward.

[@JohnVKaravitis]

@@fiddlestickproductions1195 You are very naive. Interviews sre a one-shot event that someone can easily "game" if they have the knack for social engineering. Also, as an employer, I don't have the time or the energy to do exhaustive background checks on candidates' potential as future employees. Grades, standardized tests, and the reputation of the school are all I really need. Are these infallible yardsticks? No. But they are objective, and apply to everyone equally. Honestly, from your long-winded screed, you seem to be very idealistic at best, terribly naive at worst.

[@fiddlestickproductions1195]

@@JohnVKaravitis ​ I may be naive, and you would definitely know better than me what works best when you're considering your own future employees. But I stand by my original points that grades are not the only objective predictor of future success, and they cause problems because they inevitably function as carrots/sticks. I think we both agree that grades and interviews and probably all other yardsticks have drawbacks because humans are complex. I just think you may be overstating the value of grades by saying they're "incredibly irreplaceable" and that there's "no other way" to objectively assess potential. As I said, research actually suggests interviews (especially when structured properly) are better predictors of success than grades (meta-analysis here, for example: houdekpetr.cz/!data/public_html/papers/Roth%20et%20al%201996.pdf). I agree that someone could "game" an interview, but that could easily be said of grades too. That's why things like grades, interviews, etc. are not perfect correlates with future success. And I agree it's much quicker and easier to just look at grades. I do understand why they're so appealing, but that doesn't mean they're the best measurement, and they're certainly not the only one.

[@jamesmcdonnell2455]

@@fiddlestickproductions1195 This entire video is an oversimplification. How does erasing grades prevent cheating? How does the fact that idiots exist (those who don't understand that a lower grade in a harder class is better than a high grade in an easy class) have any relation to whether or not we should use grades? Hell, you oversimplify things by claiming that receiving a "D" provides no feedback. I admit it's been a while since I was in school, but I don't remember ever just getting a grade without having an assignment with, at minimum, the wrong answers marked.

[@zBPS]

@@JohnVKaravitis Then you are missing out on a lot of good potential workers, that will only hurt you in the end.

[@vladimirofsvalbard9477]

This video aged VERY poorly lol I wonder what this man would say about the current state of education under 'no child left behind.' Children having their grades softened or even irrelevant are even MORE disengaged than ever before.

[@reeltimeoffical]

I believe you are misinterpreting his points.I understand that having a quantitative based system to record how students are understanding a subject may seem effective, but the system itself dictates how students will survive when they graduate from high school. What he is saying that teachers and students can still give themselves goals and criticism without the use of numbers.

[@muthaafrika6137]

Literature? Like I GIVE a DAMN

[@nunya5270]

Yes! I think that grading also can steer ppl/students away from taking classes they might otherwise be interested in due to the risk of failure, or of possibly getting a low grade in the course. I know I've definitely considered numerous courses of interest to me which I decided not to pursue simply b/c of how difficult (or time consuming) it might be to achieve a high or passing grade! There was only one time in my educational pursuits that I took a grading risk by enrolling in a course I knew I might not pass, & I only did so b/c I was immensely eager to learn about the topic: Political Science. While the course did prove to be too time consuming for me to achieve a high grade, the influence of what I learned in that course has largely impacted my life and career. It stands out as one of the best classes I've ever taken. It's truly unfortunate to reflect upon the major influence that grading systems actually have had on my educational choices, and likely those of others. Thank you Alfie for your devotion to correcting our practice as parents and educators. You always provide clarity with not just your opinion, but with commentary deeply backed by research. You're a blessing and inspiration to us all.