Edmonton teacher suspended for giving 0s

[Nine]

60. So if I disagreed with the policy of teaching about evolution or contraceptives...

I should be congratulated for following my conscience and instead teaching "intelligent design" and abstinence-only?


Getting back to grades, you're combining multiple issues:

1. Should students be placed into learning environments (like a higher grade level) that far exceed their skill level? No.

2. Should students be given meaningless tokens (like good grades) that represent no real achievement? No. But that leads to the question of why we give grades in the first place. Is it to measure learning? To reward desired behavior? To rank and evaluate students for the benefit of future schools and employers? I would argue that the purpose of the traditional grading system is rarely examined and often muddled. And I believe this lack of clarity is more to blame for "grade inflation" than anything.

3. Should students face consequences for not doing homework? It depends. Many serious educators have argued that students learn more when they are motivated by internal rewards rather than being manipulated by external reward and punishment systems. Strictly speaking, I have nothing against reward and punishment systems, but it can't be the only tool in your toolbox. I would hope that the teacher would first try to find out why a student was not completing his homework.

I'd also like to point out that it is entirely possible to measure, recognize, and reward achievements without the counterpart of punishing for failures. When you take a test to get your driver's license, they don't care if it's the first time you're taking it or the fourth. If you can pass the test you get your license. If not, you try again next month. They don't average all your tests together. And no one argues that driver's license test results are "inflated" or that BMVs have knuckled under to pressure from from driver's license applicants and their parents.

Of course, this is all theoretical. As I said, we don't even know what the real story at this particular school is because we have only one side of it.