I would love to live in a world where grading/ranking did not exist. As Elbow points out, it is human nature to rank people and to seek to know where we rank in comparison to everyone else. Everything in our education system is based around this principle. But this creates a poisonous learning environment, where people are conditioned to care more about their rank than about actually learning or growing. Grading is an easy way to sort, rank, include and exclude people-- to decide who should move forward or who should stay behind-- but it is completely unhelpful in creating a cultural of meaningful learning.
As Elbow explains, grades are not only destructive in labeling students who struggle to get good grades, they are also harmful to "A" students who begin "doubting their true ability and feeling like frauds" (391) because they learn that they have to neglect their own judgement for doing what the teacher wants-- what will get them the "A." I identify with this group quite a bit. As a high schooler and an undergrad, I became skilled at doing just what was required-- what would please my teachers and get me a good grade. My goal was rarely my own educational growth. That is not purely the fault of the grading system, but the system allowed and even encouraged me to approach education this way. As an undergraduate English major, I studied so many topics at a time, most with huge reading loads, that I did not feel I had the time to fully dive into anything or explore my own understandings and ideas. I learned what the professors told me and filled in gaps from Spark Notes or other resources. I loved literature, but the main goal in place was for me to do the work and get a grade, not to make sure I had any personal experiential connection with the material I was "learning."
Of course I see the same attitudes in my students. It would be hard to make it through high school, and all the required hoops and standardized tests without obtaining a grade-centric mindset. As a teacher, I desperately want to put some of Elbow's strategies into practice. Particularly, creating spaces in my classes that are not evaluated. I love his idea of taking the first few weeks of class to have students write unevaluated work, which they read and share but do not receive feedback on. I think that would set a good tone for the class, that writing is about more than producing 'what the teacher wants.' I would feel successful if I could, even for a small portion of time, get students to consider an alternative-- to introduce the idea that maybe there is more to life and learning than rank and evaluation. To quote Elbow one last time, "I find that the greatest and most powerful breakthroughs in learning occur when I can get myself and others to put aside the nagging, self-doubting question... and instead take some chances, trust our instincts or hungers" (398).
