When I was in Grade 6, I got a C- in Math.
I hated my teacher, I always rushed through my homework and I didn't pay attention in class (I had finally noticed girls and was too busy ogling Nikki).
When I came home with my report card, my parents freaked (if you're a child of Asian parents, you know how that goes). I was lectured, they arranged a meeting with my teacher (how embarrassing) and proceeded to develop a strict after-school homework regimen for me.
Needless to say, I worked my butt off for the next three months and was able to turn that C- into a solid B.
That's a scenario that is played out in hundreds of homes across the Tri-Cities every year. Parents and students receive report cards at timely intervals, they understand what the letter grades mean and they react accordingly. It's a good system that has served us well for decades.
Oddly, there are some school boards in Metro Vancouver that want to do away with letter grades for a wishy-washy system of arbitrary feedback.
As has been widely reported, officials in Surrey, Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge, are embarking on a pilot project whereby students up until Grade 7 receive teacher comments and meetings in lieu of letter grades. Proponents of the system argue that it will provide "better, fuller and more ongoing information" about a student's progress. One so-called expert in the United States even disparaged letter grades by suggesting they promote competition.
Wait, because competition doesn't exist in the real world?
I agree that teachers need to provide more feedback to parents and, in turn, parents need to be more involved in their children's education.
But letter grades are important, too. They are a clear measure of how a student is faring relative to his or her peers, they allow parents to measure the performance of individual schools and they prepare students for letter grades in high school and university.
Or perhaps my colleague Jim wants to eliminate letter grades in high school and university, too? How would you like your heart doctor to have a "meets expectations" rating in his coronary arteries class?
