Re: grades/authority/community, etc.

[Eric Crump <wleric@showme.missouri.edu>]

Lynne,

I have a 3-year-old who just started day-care recently. After the first day,
her care-giver said, "My, she is a strong-willed little thing!" She is. She
can't hear or speak all that well (just got tubes put in her ears yesterday
so we hope her hearing will improve if we can get rid of the fluid buildup),
so she gets frustrated when things aren't going how she wants. 
Can't get her point across, so she Throws things. Screams. Hits. 

Best way to provoke her rage is to grab a toy from her and take it. If she
can't get the toy back, she gets another and throws it. Or she gets a crayon
and scribbles on the wall, or she sneaks into the kitchen and steals the
frozen waffles from the freezer. Fuck you, she says, in her own particular
way. 

But if you ask: "Quincy, may I have that toy, please?" she gives it 
gladly. Every time. Runs off and plays with something else, happy as a 
clam.

It's a very loose analogy, but grades are like the first situation. They are
about reward or punish, not about mutual respect. Quincy has a toy that *I*
don't want her to have. Our desires conflict and I assert my authority over
her (which his case amounts to physical superiority). Even when teachers give
good grades for good work, it's still a matter of
teacher-as-locus-of-institutionally-granted-power condescending to approve of
student-as-recipient's efforts. 

Sure, grades motivate. My point is that they don't motivate productively. 
They don't encourage students to stand on their own, they encourage 
students to seek teacher approval. Atttention is always diverted away 
from learning and independence because students have to please the 
Teacher, the Institution. I don't argue that we befriend all students. I 
suggest (and I've been inspired by Joe Saling in this) that we become 
*colleagues* and treat each other with the kind of respect that 
relationship implies. Grade thwart collegiality.

I feel about that like Quincy feels when somebody swipes her toy. 

--Eric Grump, er, Crump