Social Structure of Education

As a student, there are many ways in which I am impacted by the structure of education. Growing up, I was taught that I did good or bad in a class was by the letter grade I've received, however, in recent years I've started to question the system of why I, as a student, must be evaluated on a grade scale. I would question "What if I put a lot of effort into this one project but still get a bad grade?" then the next question that would come along with that was, "Am I not smart enough?" and along comes many more unanswered questions. From this system, I believe some teachers can tell if a student had put effort into a class project, however, take art class as an example, what if one student was better in drawing than another student, but the student who wasn't as good put in more effort? I think it would be unfair of the teacher to grade both students without seeing each of the students effort.

From the video above, it proves a good point about effort and how it is used in the real world. If a student doesn't put in any effort but still get a good grade, in the long run they may have their mind set to not putting in any effort at all and if that was to happen then in the real world they may have a lot of complications. Furthermore, it leads back to the grading system that us as students are at times too use to that we forget to compare it to the bigger picture: jobs, careers, families, friends, life, and etc. In my opinion, I view the grading system as a "system that is not in-depth enough." 

I think there can be changes to the grading system or maybe not even having the grading system at all, because when students know that they are being graded, some can do the work only for the good grades and by getting the good grades some are willing to cheat just to pass a class. By cheating, the student wouldn't learn anything about the subject but rather to just finish the work. 

Although the grading system is very helpful in determining who is intelligent and who is not, and/or which class fits best for them, the mind set of students can cheat the system in many ways. Moreover, no system is perfect but I hope the structure of education can find a way to improve the grading system and how it is used.

An interesting article on the disadvantages of the Grading System:

 http://www.ehow.com/list_5935940_disadvantages-letter-grading-system.html