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That's as an absurd notion as saying that getting rid of money will solve wealth inequality. Weird Communist logic where when the world shows you people aren't

That's as an absurd notion as saying that getting rid of money will solve wealth inequality. Weird Communist logic where when the world shows you people aren't equal, instead of accepting it, you claim the world is wrong. Too much stress might be bad, but there's an optimal level of stress and it is definitely not zero. Software that doesn't get tested will be full of bugs, students that don't get tested will misunderstand the material. People need reward function. They need clear motivation. If they don't have money / grades / other goals, very few will be internally motivated enough to do things out of sheer will. Just like communism doesn't work because people need to see the carrot in front of their face to be motivated. By the way, in actually communist countries, their education was even more stressful and competitive. If you decide to not use carrots, you're very likely to find yourself using sticks.

prepend 3y ago
There’s also an incentive issue of whether students will actually work and learn if there are no grades. I struggle with raising children. Post-Covid the grading system is really weird with lots of things not being graded or allowing infinite retakes. My kids frequently say “I’m not doing that, it isn’t graded.” Even though it’s practice or homework for grades things. If the entire freshman year isn’t graded, will students choose to do assignments? Will they actually learn and be ready for future study? How will they self-assess? This seems like a nice idea that will incentivize not learning and instead lead students to prioritize many other things that are interesting freshman year.
- dotnet00 3y ago
  >My kids frequently say “I’m not doing that, it isn’t graded.” Even though it’s practice or homework for grades things. To be fair, depending on how old your kids are, that isn't too bad. Knowing when to take a break/prioritize and skip an assignment is also a skill. Even pre-covid, it was common at my uni for classes to allow 2-3 skipped assignments per semester with no penalty. Used to be really convenient when needing to focus on something else, like an exam/project for another class. It was a much more healthier learning arrangement than in highschool where it was normal to get assigned a bunch of homework from all classes simulateneously with no real flexibility.

prepend 3y ago

There’s also an incentive issue of whether students will actually work and learn if there are no grades. I struggle with raising children. Post-Covid the grading system is really weird with lots of things not being graded or allowing infinite retakes. My kids frequently say “I’m not doing that, it isn’t graded.” Even though it’s practice or homework for grades things. If the entire freshman year isn’t graded, will students choose to do assignments? Will they actually learn and be ready for future study? How will they self-assess? This seems like a nice idea that will incentivize not learning and instead lead students to prioritize many other things that are interesting freshman year.

dotnet00 3y ago
>My kids frequently say “I’m not doing that, it isn’t graded.” Even though it’s practice or homework for grades things. To be fair, depending on how old your kids are, that isn't too bad. Knowing when to take a break/prioritize and skip an assignment is also a skill. Even pre-covid, it was common at my uni for classes to allow 2-3 skipped assignments per semester with no penalty. Used to be really convenient when needing to focus on something else, like an exam/project for another class. It was a much more healthier learning arrangement than in highschool where it was normal to get assigned a bunch of homework from all classes simulateneously with no real flexibility.