Grades or No Grades

My son & I discuss a lot on education. He is a doctor (medicine) and I am an Engineer. We both have absolutely no background on teaching… other than the “teachers gene”. Teaching runs in our family. From my great grand father to my father, my grand father & grand mother on my moms side including my mom, my uncle & my brother & his wife, all are/were teachers. So we joke about a teaching gene and we think it gives my son & I the privilege to speak about education. Ha Ha!

Well one of the qualms we have about the education, is grades. I am 3rd grader, she is in 6th grade and so on.

Grades is like a fraternity in my opinion except you don’t get to enjoy it most of the time unless you are in top 20% or bottom.

Well let me explain. When one says he/she is in 11th grade… does it mean that he/she has an equal grasp on all subjects? The scores won’t certainly agree. Someone is better at one subject but sucks at the other is what we are used to see all the time. Still we say he is in 8th grade so he is more informed that someone who is in 6th grade. May be “more informed is true” but “more knowledgeable”, would be questionable.

So someone at grade 6 could be well above that grade for certain subject and vice versa.

Of course my point is not to argue against school nor I am saying change the whole thing but what I am saying is we NEED TO provide avenues & opportunities to those who want to explore and learn at their own pace.

That’s exactly Orexian Foundation has in mind. Complementing the learning at the school by providing what they are missing out on.

Check out the references-

1. Revolution of self directed learning.

2. What if students controlled their own learning?

3. Changing Education Paradigm by Sir Ken Robinson.

There are many… I do like the schools though. Learning together, becoming a part of a group not only gives a sense of security but also strengthens the learning.

Anyways… that’s all for the day!

Now what do you think? Is it a first grader written blog or an engineer’s design note? đŸ™‚ (Neither have good readability)

Picture Credit: https://newvitruvian.com