Kids Don't Need Grades

I already know this is going to sound controversial, but I ask you to hear me out. Make it to the end of this article, think about it for a bit, then come back and let me know what you think.

I also feel I need to preface this by saying, I was a top grade kid. I was very Maths focused and so ended up doing the highest level of maths you can in year 12 and had all my subjects STEM focused (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths). My teachers always told me I was a bright kid and would normally linger in the A’s and B’s on my reports. The point here isn’t to brag but instead tell you that I’m not coming from a place of someone who didn’t do well at school and just wants to rant about how school is bad. No, I am coming from a place where I got all the good grades and still think kids don’t need grades.

What’s the point of school?

Once upon a time, people viewed school as a place to get good grades and come out as the smartest person. This is becoming more and more false by the day. Schools still value good grades and, in my opinion, disproportionately celebrate them over other achievements, but these days it's also more about the process than what you actually learn. A maths teacher will teach you what a2 + b2 equals, but you’re really learning how to memorise and apply knowledge to the real world. A science teacher might teach you what chemicals to mix to make an explosion, but you’re really learning cause and effect. And a History teacher will teach you the years all the wars started, but you’re actually learning how to memorise things effectively.

You will go through school being taught a whole range of different things. What you learn however, are skills that go much deeper than they first seem. Some kids will become famous authors and they’ll need to know how to use words effectively. Some kids will become engineers and need all the maths and physics to make the bridges we drive on safe. But some will become dancers and realistically, might not need anything further than a year 8 education to do so.

So when I say kids don’t need grades. I mean those kids. The dancers. The artists. The musicians. The florists. Those kids don’t need a PHD in math, or science, or english, or any of those subjects to do great in their job. But that doesn’t mean that they should stop trying or stop showing up to school.

Kids need school

School is an incredibly formative part of a kid’s life. They will spend most of their waking child life at school, so there clearly is some benefit to it, otherwise why would it still be around? The statement “kids don’t need grades” was intentionally meant to feel wrong. It was meant to make you think there was surely some kind of mistake. But there isn’t a mistake here. Kids don’t need grades. They do need school, but if they make it out with a ‘C’, then so what? Some kids just aren’t built for school.

I was listening to this interview with Eddie Woo. He wears a lot of hats, but his main one is maths teacher. During this interview, he talks about a student he had. This student was just showing up to school simply because he wasn’t old enough to start a trade. After chatting a bit more, Mr Woo decided to pivot from whatever they were learning at the time, and began to teach this student trigonometry 1-1. As he continued to explain trig and show it in the real world, the student began to engage with the classwork more than ever before.

This is a clear example of a kid who doesn’t need grades. He’s going to go into construction and so as far as he can see, he doesn’t need anything that school is going to teach him. Mr Woo was able to challenge that and show this student that kids need school…but not all of it necessarily.

So what…

Okay, I’ll admit the title is meant to catch your eye and get you to read the article. It should actually be called something like “Not all Kids Need Grades”, because that’s the truth. Some kids will become pastry chefs and don’t care what year that war started. Some will become dancers and don’t need to know what chemicals mix to make an explosion. But some kids will become Mathematicians, Authors, Geologists, Astronauts and for those kids, yeah, grades do matter. I would hope that the scientist making medicine for people knows what he’s doing and is a professional.

So, in conclusion, in my time working as a high school tutor, I told kids that they should consider dropping out of school. I have also chatted with kids who want to drop out and told them they should stay. The point is that if the grades are the focus of your child, you’re missing a whole world of possibilities that your child could come into. That’s why kids don’t need grades.

DADDING IN ACTION

Take some time to think; What's the most important part of your kid's schooling