TOW #26 The Case Against Grades (Michael Thomson)

I would like to give a shorter introduction and spend more time analyzing the devices' impacts on readers.  

     My view of grades is rather negative, so in reading an article of favorite abolish-grades educational psychologists Alfie Kohn I discovered this article that he mentioned. Slate is an online publishing magazine that has great opinion pieces backed by current data, and this one, by Michael Thomson, is no exception. While not a sociologist himself, Thomson includes several statistics and expert opinions that augment his credibility. His purpose is to rethink the viability of grades evaluate the worth of keeping and abolishing them, with significant bias towards removing them. His article is not directed towards anyone in particular, I think it is a simple open opinion piece.
     Thomson uses a format of exemplification to make his points regarding grades. He makes a point of describing several schools and districts that have eliminated grading altogether, and then continues with analysis of how students' educational experiences have been changed as a result. For example, he describes the Summerhill model of education without grades, precisely how it looks to a student participant and teachers, and then offers a statistic about a similar school of the same design, the Sudbury Valley School, and its 80 percent college and 20 percent graduate school acceptance rates. By doing this, Thomson moves away from educational philosophy and provides real, applicable examples that can be analyzed and considered by his audience. By describing them with words that have positive connotations like "support" and "encourage," Thomson gives the impression that they are ideal learning institutions.
     Thomson begins the essay with an introduction to the problem of grading. He does this via statistics. "SAT reading scores are at a 40-year low, and one recent study ranked the U.S. 17th in education," he writes, and then concludes "It's becoming increasingly clear that the rigid and judgmental foundation of modern education is the origin point for many of our worst qualities." By coupling hard facts with analysis to introduce the problem, Thomson makes his subject of interest irrefutable and concrete, an issue that must be dealt with immediately and that directly concerns his audience.
     Overall, I think the essay did a solid job. There were one or two logical fallacies that connected studies that were significant independently but not when paired. The examples he found and compiled were really interesting, though.

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