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caution, strong language follows
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Josh rants about grading and in the midst of it asks me to say something in defense of grading...

ME!?!?

I'm genuinely sorry, Josh (seriously) that you are just one more victim of the evil (i'm not being ironic, i'm ranting!) apparatus of bueracratic tool we call "grading."

Grading sucks....

School sucks....

I told a student today that I don't see my role in school as being participation in a "holy" institution.

Oh no.

take the corruption of the two party political system,

take the scavenging of Sam Walton,

take the slime of the advertising industry,

take the misogyny of Hollywood,

take the greed of Enron (and all like CEOs)

take the crusades of the church -- and NOW

you've got a more accurate view of my view of _SCHOOL._

Don't even get me started on GRADES!

Ideally, I see my role in school as being the minority dissenting vote, the prophet in his own city,

(and just so you know, I *know* that I don't live up to the beautiful martyrdom of these ideals)

BUT what is faith and truth and honesty if your front burner is school?

That grades *do* give us a chance to give our own subjective (yes, I agree, Josh, absolutely subjective) albeit, hopefully somewhat expert (and I use the term loosely) assessment of a particular performance in a particular place.

I always say --

Grades are not:

a measure of your learning.
a measure of your personhood.
a measure of your potential.
a measure of your worth.
a measure of your intelligence.

They just measure how well you stack up against a particular crowd -- in a particular place at a particular time -- given some particular opinions that have trained one particular person.

Are you hearing my particularity?

BTW, Josh, this is *so* not about your experience alone -- its about my front burner. I feel keenly that I'm spending more time GRADING than doing the work that I came here to do...

Here's an article that suggests that possibly (please!?) grades could go the way of the white tiger (something I know nothing about -- the white tiger that is) (and BTW, Christian, YES, I would like such a feature in my blogging software.)...and here's a description of an alternate assessment system that seems a heck of a lot better to me...

better for students, better for later evaluaters, and (though harder) better too for teachers -- it would allow teachers to be more devoted to the process of contextualizing a student as opposed to treating them as they so often get treated...

~peace