Comments on: Grades and motivation

By: Miss Tresninos

Miss Tresninos — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 23:52:00 +0000

take a “child full of wonder, curiosity and questions and turn him completely off of learning within three to five years.”

This definitely describes the problem we have by homeschooling like they do in school. You are right about how conditioned we are to think in public school terms. I have been struggling with this for the past year. I am learning that the public school ideal may be good for, say, well, I can’t really say who it’s good for, definitely not the active, creative types like I have.

Of course, I live in CA where my record keeping doesn’t have to be as intensive as it does in other states so we are very fortunate.

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 22:20:00 +0000

I agree. Grades are good motivators. I think it’s good if we introduce it to our kids as early as possible. It could added in their list of motivations.

By: Headmistress

Headmistress — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 21:27:00 +0000

Thanks for this post…very informative and I look forward to reading your other posts you linked. “To grade or not to grade” is something I haven’t even given a thought to yet…of course, our oldest just turns 5 next month, so it’s not like I’m in a big hurry. But definitely good food for thought…:)

By: Dana

Dana — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 17:27:00 +0000

btw, I haven’t started grading, yet. I might next year, just for the sake of having a better record than a list of concepts that have been mastered or need additional work. We don’t move on until a thing is mastered, but I agree…grading on some things is way easier than others.

By: Dana

Dana — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 17:21:00 +0000

Julie, that sounds like what you’ve described of Marissa! I think I’d be the same way as you.

Judy, I certainly don’t have a problem with grades. Particularly older kids seem to have a desire to know how they measure against whatever standard. And an older child may tend to be more motivated simply to improve in a subject. I just thought the question was odd, particularly given the age of the two children in question.

By: Judy Aron

Judy Aron — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 14:02:00 +0000

At one point along our homeschooling journey my kids demanded that I give them grades. They wanted to know how they were doing. It was somehow important for them to be able to benchmark themselves. They valued doing well.
There was some satisfaction for them to know that they could obtain a good grade, and with a bad grade they knew that they had to work a little harder. of course we never moved onto something else until they mastered what they were learning.

It is easy to give a grade on concepts or problems that are either right or wrong. Like math questions, grammatical errors, historical or geographical facts. I have always had difficulty grading anything that was an opinion or conceptual in nature. It becomes, in that case, more of whether or not they presented a convincing case, had their facts and put forth a logical explanation of things.

Of course discussing grades, what they mean to whom, and what their purpose is, with your kids is a lesson in and of itself.

By: Julie

Julie — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 11:08:00 +0000

Oh, I just had to share a Marissa-ism.

I was surprised at one parent-teacher meeting to learn that Marissa was failing spelling. She has savant like language skills. Any word she sees once, she can spell.

When I got home, I asked her, “What’s up?”

“Of course I am failing spelling. I don’t do the homework. Spelling homework is for kids that don’t know how to spell and need the practice. I already know how to spell.”

I didn’t know how to respond. She was right. She didn’t need to do spelling homework. It was a waste of her time and mine. I learned that I was too motivated by grades ~