Blog Assignment #4: Grades

Debates about having grades or not in primary school have been very current since the Centre-Right Alliance established a government in 2006. This question is very hot and burning and has been discussed a lot between Swedish Parties. And when the Alliance started to rule Sweden they registered written reports in primary school and lowered the grades to 6th grade. The Alliance thinks that grades in the lower ages in school are a good idea. Grades in primary school will lower pupil’s self-confidence.

First of all it’s a blessing to see the happiness from the pupils when they feel they’ve succeeded. But I can’t stop thinking about what will happened if they have the pressure on them, because of the grades and they found out that I didn’t succeed, for example in maths. When they see that they failed to get a grade in a certain subject their self-confidence will get lower and lower. Many thoughts would probably go through their heads like what will happened now and how will they have the strength to re-start again and think that it will go better next time?

Second I think that grades in primary school can lead to a competition between the pupils in school. And I don’t think that these kinds of competition are ok. Pupils will compete among each other who will receive the best grades and it leads to a negative stress and struggle in classroom. And if someone fails to get good grades he or she will be very sad and self-confidence will go downwards.

On the other hand it can be a competition where pupils compete against themselves and these grades can become a carrot or a reward. Pupils can see the results of struggling and fighting for right grades and they would like to do better all the time. Nevertheless, I think that grades in primary school will lead to a negative competition. Pupils will compete with themselves because they need to have a good grade and it needs to look good. But I can’t stop thinking about what they really would learn. Because pupils will not learn forever and put knowledge’s in their long-term memory, they’ll learn things that will be put in their short-term memory and then just disappears.

Therefore are grades in primary school not a good idea. It has so much negative affects and when someone fails to get a grade it will lead to lower self- confidence among these children. And then two questions remain; how can I as a teacher start again with these children and how can I make them feel proud and sure of that; ok, I failed this time but I will come back with new energy and then I will make it? I don’t think we can do that. It is all about making them feel that I can do this and it’s ok to make mistakes sometimes but I serve as I am and I struggle hard because of that.