Imagine an education that does away with the practice of grading, or at least reserves grades for the few tasks and outcomes that are easily measurable and where grades truly serve the needs of the learner.
A radical idea? Many homeschoolers will tell you that saying no to grades is one of the greatest benefits of learning at home.
Grades are not the motivating factor we presume them to be. They are, instead, an example of “functional fixedness” that Dan Pink talks about in his TED Talk about the science of motivation.
Or consider this conclusion by Barbara Clark in Growing Up Gifted (Prentice Hall, 2007, seventh edition), probably the most commonly used textbook about gifted education:
“[Grades are] unfair, misleading, meaningless in most cases, and damaging to the self-concept of both bright and less bright children. They create pressures and anxieties for both teachers and students. They neither motivate not contribute to learning. They communicate information on a par with chance estimates; at best, what they say is neither explicit nor constructive. But for many parents and teachers alike, grades are the most important part of the school’s responsibility.” (p. 496)
If you homeschool, what is your experience with giving or not giving grades? How can non-homeschoolers reduce the negative effects of grading?
