School Grades: What Are They Worth? - Society

2023 Author: Oswald Adamson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 20:18

An article is now actively circulating on the Web that a certain scientist from Minnesota conducted a study that proved that "C grade" students are much more successful than excellent students. A search on the Internet easily shows that this is the most fake

Excellent students of neurosis

It is at least not very smart to believe that triplets are a direct path to success in life: a good store of knowledge, the ability to study, work, overcome difficulties, the habit of constant self-education is usually not very inherent in triples. But it is precisely these qualities that are necessary for success in life.

The idea of assessing knowledge has changed many times since its inception and has reached us not in its best form. And now we pass this ridiculous attitude towards school grades to our children, without thinking about where it will lead them.

As a result, due to the children's grades, nervous breakdowns, hatred of school, fear of failure, emasculation of the meaning of learning. Grades have replaced the pleasure of learning, of solving a problem, of the teacher's human approval, of overcoming difficulties.

Deuce. In the mass consciousness, the assessment is unequivocal. And let's remember what can be hidden behind it in each specific case: confusion, fear of a teacher, fever or headache, bullying of classmates, protest against the system or oppressive parents, lack of faith in oneself, “bowed hands” and even despair.

Children in a cage

In the middle of the last century, American scientist Martin Seligman almost accidentally discovered such a phenomenon as learned helplessness. A number of experiments were intended to study Pavlovian classical conditioning by teaching dogs to fear a certain sound. For this, after the sound, the dogs sitting in the cages received a slight electric shock. It was assumed that as a result, when dogs become accustomed to the "sound-shock" connection and the cages are opened for them, they will run away from them immediately after the signal. But when the cages were opened, the dogs remained lying and meekly endure the electric shocks.

Then Seligman conducted another experiment, dividing the dogs into several groups: those who could stop the electric shocks by pressing the pedal, and those who could not avoid it. It turned out that dogs that could influence the situation immediately fled from the cages after the discovery. And the rest behaved in the same way as in the first experiment.

Since then, there have been many studies "based on" this experiment, and today it is reliably known that people who repeatedly experience the uncontrollability of events become helpless and resign themselves to the fact that nothing depends on them.

This is exactly what happens to our children when their successes, albeit small, begin to be ignored. When they get bad grades and punishment from their parents no matter what caused that worst grade. Therefore, it is very important not to punish (believe me, no schoolchild wants to study badly!), But to help the child, kindly understanding the reasons and helping to find solutions to problems.

Working on bugs

In the English language there is a word mastery - "a sense of control, power, performance skills, skill, assimilation." So, in the process of behavioral psychotherapy for depression, it is this feeling that is used as one of the supports on the path to recovery. It is this that gives a person the strength to move forward! In my practice, it turned out to be very effective to form such an attitude towards grades in children from the very beginning of their studies.

Children come to school to study, and it's interesting. But they, like all people on earth, can sometimes misunderstand something, do not do enough, sometimes even be lazy (yes, and we, adults, too). And you have to learn too.

If the teacher worked with only one student, then he could inform him in a conversation that he did well, and what else needs to be worked on. But there are a lot of children in the class, so I had to figure out how to give everyone quick feedback. For this, there are estimates. They have nothing to do with whether a child is good or not, they do not measure kindness and humanity. And even mental ability is not appreciated.

• "5" - "you have worked enough in the lesson and at home and should continue in the same spirit."
• "4" - "a little underdeveloped, pay attention to mistakes and finish teaching."
• "3" - "apparently, you paid too little attention to the lessons or misunderstood something; if you can't do it yourself, ask for help. "
• “2” is a signal to parents that, perhaps, something is happening to the child and they need to identify the problem and help solve it.

Only before explaining this to a child, you yourself need to learn how to treat the numbers in the diary in this way, otherwise nothing will work.

When a family has the right attitude towards grades, the child gets the opportunity to focus on the learning process, and not on a showy picture. And parents are less nervous when they take the top five off the pedestal and focus their attention on the child's development and his interest in learning

There are children who are perfectionists almost from birth, they are upset to tears even because of fours. My son was like that. Therefore, we agreed with the first teacher and set up a joint effort to get him a bad mark. And when he came home disheveled, we greeted him with balloons, cake and a poster “Hurray! Holiday of the first two! " and told him that we all got bad grades in our lives and this is a normal part of school life. And that now he is a real schoolboy!

This took away unnecessary stress from him and relieved him of the fear of failure. Since then, for our son, grades have been just a signaling system, and studying has been an exciting experience. And boring things for him are good training for willpower.