Special Blog Assignment

The Article A World Where Grades Will be Left Behind talks about a hypothetical world where education is online and very small in cost. To get this shift of thinking the author, Mary Marklein, says that in a few years lectures will be more entertaining. “A lesson looks something like Angry Birds.” He says this experience is like "taking the red pill." With this new power you can teach on such a large scale that it will seem like wonderland, or you can take the "blue pill" and go back to teaching 20 students in a classroom.

In this article he says grades are, “the failure of the education system,” and this new way of learning will give students the opportunity to stay on the same subject until the skill is mastered. First, how will they know the student mastered the skill? There are still many ways of cheating to “Pass.” The system would still have to have a certain percentage to go by to say, “okay they can move on. They have mastered this skill.” To me that is still a grade.

When I was growing up you were in big trouble if you came home with less than a B. Grades are very important because grades reflect how much you understand. The students who make straight A’s understand the material and most likely understand more. It is the students who get A’s who go beyond the average level. What I think is sad is that a C is average. In my mind a C is almost failing. A D is not acceptable by any means; that is failing. I understand that there are students who use “burp back education,” but those are not the students who make A’s in every subject.