Grades destroyed my physics teacher.

“What grade do you want?” he asked, obviously frustrated.  “An A?  How about an A?  Everybody gets an A!” At this point he was furiously scribbling in his gradebook as that deep shade of crimson we’d grown familiar with crept across his face.  We would smile and giggle to ourselves as he muttered to himself angrily for the next several minutes.

We students looked forward to Mr. H’s freakouts, so long as we weren’t the specific targets, because they were fun to watch.  It was like sitting front row at a Jerry Springer taping.  He’d storm back and forth, mutter under his breath, alternate between yelling and seething explanation, tear off his shirt in a rage…well, all but the last at least.  You were never quite sure what was going to set him off, but I eventually noticed a common theme.

Mr. H wanted nothing more than to awaken a love for science in his students.  He really seemed like a good guy to me.  He had a good sense of humor and while he was a bit unpredictable he always encouraged legitimate questions.  He had fun doing demonstrations for us and encouraged inquiry.  I once got in an argument with a friend over how many atoms there were in the universe total (more or less than a googol…do not judge me) and he gave us some guidance on the issue.  He possessed many of the qualities you’d like to see in a teacher.  Grades ruined him, however.  How?

Grades put the focus on the wrong thing.

Mr. H wanted us to do our experiments and accurately record the data we got, even if we ended up with messed up results.  He wanted us to really learn and understand the scientific method, not plug the correct answers into our notebooks so we could get points.  Most students, however, couldn’t give half a rip about the process.  We wanted our grades!  To get good grades we’d been taught you need to get the right answers, so that’s what we focused on.  Learning didn’t matter, grades did.

Now that I’m a teacher I ‘m able to more clearly see what Mr. H’s issue was.  I’m not in danger of freaking out on my students but I very quickly identified the focus students (and parents) have on grades.  In most cases all a student cares about is the grade they got.  If they write a paper all they want to do is look at the grade.  A high enough grade makes them happy and they ignore it, a low grade either makes them feel like a failure or get angry at the teacher for the injustice (usually both).

Students learn when they are able to focus on the work they did.  What did they do well?  What do they need to improve on?  What does a good piece of writing look like?  What broader understandings are there to glean from this assignment?  A student learns nothing from an A, B, C, D, or F on their paper.  But that’s what they so often want to see. 

One day Mr. H had a particularly magnificent meltdown and we never saw him again.  We had a sub the rest of the year – one who didn’t know physics.  So my honors physics class ended up trying to teach itself physics.  Many of us got good grades but I can guarantee there were plenty of kids that year who earned A’s in physics that didn’t really know squat about the science.  It sure would look good on our transcripts, though!

Focusing on grades as a student, teacher or parent is dangerous.  What matters more than GPA is that the student’s mind is being sharpened, they’re being awakened to things bigger than themselves, that their understanding of the content and skills is growing.  Sometimes grades reflect that, sometimes they don’t.  I know I will expect good grades from my kids – but when they bring home report cards I will understand what those grades do and do not represent.