To Grade Or Not To Grade, That Is The Problem

To Grade or Not to Grade, That is the Problem
- What’s your GPA (Grade Point Average)?
- Have you taken this course before? What did you get?
In his essay The Farce Called "Grading", Arthur E. Lean questions the use of asking these kinds of questions.
Grades have become part of our lives as students. People need a grading system and "seem to assume it to be
necessary and intrinsic to the process of formal education"(Lean 131). He refers to the grade as "a symbol
purporting to express a measurement of academic achievement-an evaluation of the quality and quantity of
learning"(Lean 132). There are two main arguments Lean has suggested. First, there is an inconsistency from the
graders. Second, he sees the grading system as being unfair and even harmful for students’ attitudes toward
education. He points out that grading system should be eliminated. To backup the fact that many people are
challenging the necessity of the grading system, Lean provides two examples:
"A sustained effort should be made to throw out false inducements to learning. In one way or another most of these
refer to our obsession with grades…. As a system for evaluating attainment of broad educational aims, it remains a
failure. Few teachers have any systematic idea of how to grade fairly. Grading is also the chief villain behind the
scandal of college cheating," said Louis T. Benezet (Lean 130).
"I have long ago reached the conclusion that the marking system itself is damaging in its impact on th...

To Grade Or Not To Grade, That Is The Problem

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