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April 24, 2001

Yes, it's that time of year again. Finals are almost over, and students in universities everywhere are anxiously awaiting their grades.

Some students are waiting to see if they passed a course, hoping to squeak by with a D. Others are fairly confident about getting decent grades, but need to see them in print before actually being relieved. Some students will be happy, others disappointed, and others just plain angry in the "how could that $#&%^! teacher give me that grade!" variety.

Why do we care so much about grades, though? Knowledge for its own sake is a lofty ideal, but at the end of the day, most (not all but most) people want a good grade and learning becomes the secondary objective. I mean, who among us has not registered for a "GPA-booster" elective at some point?

Of course, there's an obvious reason why we care so much. A fail means having to take the course over, or not getting credit. Nobody likes to fail. Too many failures might even mean not being in good academic standing, or getting placed on academic probation. There are very real consequences for too many bad grades. In addition, some jobs and opportunities are only open to students with top grades.

One of my professors once spelled out very clearly what most teachers do anyway but don't admit. He explained that his grades at the end of the semester have to fall into a certain pattern - so many As, a certain number of Bs, etcetera - and that if the class's grades as a whole were too high or two low, he would adjust accordingly. Now, almost everyone knows this, but a couple of people saw fit to argue that principle. It's not fair! they claimed. If everyone does well, we should all get good grades. Why should we be ranked against each other instead of against our own personal achievements? The simple answer that my professor gave was, well, because that's how society works. Businesses want to see four categories of graduating students: As, Bs, Cs, and Ds. They want schools to rank their students. In life, achievement is always relative, measured against others. There is no absolute "good" or absolute "bad" in most areas. There's only "best" or "worst" or "better than". Therefore, the grading system in schools reflects reality.

There is another reason we're so anxious for feedback, however. I believe that it's because people see themselves through the eyes of others. Sociologists such as George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton Cooley spoke of the self as being a social construction, defined through interaction with and feedback from others. Well, grades are a form of feedback. The A student learns through this feedback that he or she is smart, or at least academically successful. As a result, he or she internalizes this feedback and defines his or herself as a "smart" person. The student who always earns Ds and Fs, on the other hand, often has a lower self-image and self-concept because of this negative feedback. But without any feedback at all, how can we know what to think of ourselves? School is such an important part of life during the formative years of people's personalities, that grading becomes an essential element to self-concept.

People want grades because they want to know whether their effort paid off. If I spend a long time working on a project, and invest considerable time and effort into it, and am proud of what I produce, I want recognition of this fact. It's not enough for most people to work hard at something and feel satisfied with what they've learned from the experience. Most of us need someone to say "good work" or "well done". If the grade is lower than expectations, disappointment is the inevitable result. Still, there's a kind of morbid curiosity that makes us want to get a grade on almost everything.

And so, I'll give CARL a call later to see if any of my grades have come in yet, because I want to know. Admit it. So do you.