The tradition of grading goes back countless centuries. From the beginning of time, success and failure were measured and recorded. We still marvel at those wonderful, memorable successes like the Sistine Chapel, the pyramids, penicillin, the telephone and Krispy Kremes.
Failure to learn has also been recorded in many ways: by an arm hanging out of a wooly mammoth's mouth, by a defeated army in an open field, dressed in garish colors, by the bones of the Donner party in the snowed in mountain pass, by the confusion of my childhood dog, who for three years continued to sleep on the front porch of our old house and by the waist lines of my sister and I who can't stop eating Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Hershey bars (Yes, together. What are you staring at?)
Here at MCC we use the grade roster to record both the failure to learn the achievement of learning. We take the grading process for granted, but when you think about it, just how much DO you know about grading? And, more importantly, (whispered tone) how much do you know about the ugly side of grading?
This week an unnamed reporter from the Registrar's Office will share the good and the bad of grading as observed while UNDER COVER in the Registrar's Office for TWELVE YEARS.
Warning: This series may not be suitable for young children or adults with queasy stomachs and no sense of humor. On Tuesday, Part 1 of AN EXPOSE ON GRADING.
Deborah Benjamin
Registration and Records
05/03/2004 |