Grades
From day one, we are valuated as human beings. It starts the moment we are born and it continues our whole lives. It is sad somehow, because the valuation of others, lies in the eye of the beholder. When we as children start school, is our expectations are of various kind. In a early stage we will be aware of what is expected of us, what the rules are, but we have no idea what we should expect from our teachers. Nowadays, the discussions about the grades importance for the students or not, one of the main topics when it comes to the Swedish school politic. To follow the debate that goes on in the society today, can (in my opinion) be compared to walk into a timecapsuel that will take you back to the "not so good old days".



First of all I think it´s a short cut for the politicians to cry out for diciplin and an earlier grade system. It seems pretty desperate to strive for a solution that will bring the educational system backwards. To belive that you have better control over what the pupils actually learn in school if you introduces grades in primary school, are to fooling yourself. Grades have always been a kind of tool that is used for to "scare" pupils in doing better. But is that education?


The politicians must know by now that the school system needs more resources like; more teachers, smaller classes, an upgraded education for the teachers, valuation of the teachers capability to educate and to implement the feeling of being in control of your own education as a student. This will lead us to a school where the content of teaching is the primary and not the pursuit of early rating goal.





Second of all I think that bad results reflects how well the school and the teachers have succeded to provide an education that will leed the students to satisfactory results. When we talk about bad grades, we always see the student as a problem. I would say that it is time to turn that mirror around and look at the whole system, before we "punish" the students with a early grade system. Personally, I think that grades tells me nothing about what that person really are capable of. When I was a kid, grades did not only stand for an valuation of your accomplishment in school. It also stood for a social ratings accounted for the grading of your "social class". In some strange way, the children who belonged to what the teacher thought was "the upper class", always had high or higher grades, although their results were not better than the workingclass boy or girl. This injustice was in fact quite common which of course could always be justified by the teacher. I think that many children felt unfairly treated. The school let you know that you should belong to your class and not think that you could "be something", even if your study results were good. This was a side of the class society which then prevailed, a class society that I believe that we increasingly are on our way back to (more or less), which reflects a individualistic social climate that currently prevails.

So lets not go back to the "not so good old days", lets go forward.