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It is debatable whether students who are
given grades work harder than those who are not. In this dog-eat-dog world,
students always tried to get good grades and put all efforts to accomplish a
goal as fast as possible. I have seen that students strive to participate in
lots of schoolwork as well as spent day and night at Starbucks to achieve
greater success; for students, greater success means get the first place in
their class or get higher grades in college. There are many opinions regarding
this topic and some might argue that students who are assessed work harder than
those who are not, because it can increase students’ motivation in life. On the
other hand, students sufficiently accomplish their goals and study hard without
a kind of surveillance like given grades because it can be stressful. Moreover,
they already know their primary duty on their own.
To begin with, when
students are evaluated by someone, they can be stressed out. This is because it
is not their free will and some students may feel worried and anxious about being
estimated their value through their grade. This situation can involve a great
deal of mental strain and students can be under a lot of pressure. To further
explain, my personal experience and examples will support this assumption.
During the first year of college, I was just out of high school and knew very
little about what to do. When I struggled to adapt to a new situation, my
English professor, Micah, always helped me and gave me a second chance to try.
She never evaluated students’ abilities through grades and just encourage
students to participate in a discussion. When students shared their opinions
and communicated with each other, all the time she commends us. However,
everything changed when my new professor Sally came. She always told us to
study hard and give grades. In addition, when some students failed exams, she
called their parents to give a punishment. Everybody was overwhelmed, and this
as a result made me dropped the course.
On
top of that, without estimating their value through given grades, students
already know their primary duty. I think their right should be respected and
their freedom act as a supreme function if college will not be strict to their
students. This is because if they only pay attention to their grades and
competition, they cannot obtain a great deal of motivation to differentiate
themselves from others. According to a study done by the New York Times, when
asked to choose between assessment or freedom on their work, the majority of
people responded that the latter should be prioritized. The reason why they
supported not giving grades is because there are some instances students died
because of their low grades. The result of this survey points out that giving
freedom is more advantageous throughout students’ life.
At
first glance, it may seem like students who are given grades work harder than
those who are not. However, I strongly believe that students efficiently
achieve their goals except evaluating through grades. Never should we forget that
this issue may have a huge impact on our future. |