Why schools should not grade character traits

[proud2BlibKansan]

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The recent attention given to the character report cards being developed in KIPP charter schools raises yet another set of important questions about the wisdom of reducing human potential to a set of measurements. The report cards, based on character strengths identified by two prominent psychology professors, purport to gauge a student's strength of character in seven areas — self-control, optimism, grit, gratitude, zest, curiosity and 'social intelligence' (sample).

The fundamental problem with this approach was best posed by sociologist William Bruce Cameron in his 1963 book “Informal Sociology :”

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

The quote is sometimes (erroneously, it seems) attributed to Albert Einstein. And that's probably because we tend to think of Einstein as a sensible fellow who understood the limits of quantification. I think we might add a corollary to Cameron's observation: Going through tortuous gyrations in order to count something doesn't mean it should be counted.

more . . . http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/why-schools-should-not-grade-character-traits/2011/10/20/gIQAJuoU0L_blog.html

[Angry Dragon]

1. But the bean counters love to count

have to justify themselves

:hi2:

[Cerridwen]

2. The Seven Deadly Sins go secular. How cute.

[frazzled]

3. I think my kids always got "grades" (plus, check, minus) on so-called "behavior" issues

In elementary school, at least. Things like "pays attention in class," "gets along with others," etc. And those certainly always became topics during teacher-parent conferences. I remember teachers saying, alternately, of my daughter, "she is very quiet" or "she's such a pleasure to have in class." Really? I'd think: the child who never stops yakking and yakking at home and can sometimes be an absolute terror? My son's 2nd grade teacher, I remember, complained that he was such "a linear thinker." She seemed really irritated about it. I said to myself, "Well, what the heck can I do about THAT?" We certainly read him story books and gave him many creative outlets, including art and music, but the kid turned out to be a mathematician, fer chrissake.

We certainly don't want everybody to be the same (heck, some people are shy and some are boisterous), and I don't always think teachers can fairly judge behavioral or character traits. (Not that these grades ever counted for anything.) But sometimes these assessments can be useful in informing parents of how their child acts when away from home, or can provide them with ways to help with self-control or being more comfortable in social situations. They might even inform a parent who is in denial about real problems their child is having. I recall talking to a friend about my worries that my son was not very social, and didn't make friends easily. "Is HE unhappy about it?" my friend asked. No, I decided. "Then it's not a problem." That always became the measure I used when teachers pointed out some behavioral trait of my children.

At any rate, this is just to say that kids have gotten "graded" (or in some way marked) for character/behavior traits for many many years. They might not have been called the same thing, but "self-control" and "social intelligence" were always among the mix of things my kids' teachers reported on when they were young.

Maybe (just maybe, and I'm not saying I agree), a kid who is getting a low mark in 'optimism' (what the heck is that anyway?) will be encouraged to stop being a negative-Nellie all the time and start trying to improve her mark by finding something nice to say. She'll certainly be more successful in life if she does. I'm recalling a little boy I mentored in first and second grades. He was brilliant but a terror, and was always yelling out in class "that's STUPID!" "she's STUPID" (or worse, poking kids with scissors, etc.). I pulled him aside after class one day and said to him, "you know, everything has been "stupid" for you lately; usually, when someone always thinks everything or everyone else is stupid, it's really something they are feeling bad about themselves. What's bothering you? He started to cry, and told me how he'd been left alone while his mom had been taken to the hospital the night before, and he didn't know where she was and he was worried." I hugged him and, after telling him we'd help him find out about his mother, talked to him about making other children feel bad. His behavior improved, with some exceptions, over the year. I didn't seem him until four years later, at sixth grade graduation. My little terror gave the graduation speech for his class, all dressed in a jacket and tie, and beaming from ear to ear! I cried buckets, knowing he was going to be A-OK.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. I've never given grades in any of those areas.

We used to have something called "Social Development" or something like that and we would mark for following directions and completing work. But only yes or no, not letter grades. Then there were subtopics under academic areas for things like "Contributes in class".

But nothing like the nonsense in the OP.

[HockeyMom]

5. Sounds like catholic school back in the 50s

Good Citizenship (Christian?) was on the report card along with English, Math, Science, RELIGION, etc. The classroom Nun gave a grade for that. By what criteria? I have no idea. My parents were more interested in my Science and Math (not even Relgion) grades.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. We were graded in "Deportment"

Still makes me laugh.

[Odin2005]

7. We shy kids often got punished for "poor participation".

And don't me started on group work, that was torture. :grr:

[HockeyMom]

11. Oh, I fully understand that

It wasn't until I went back to college in my 50s that I was able to do group work. I was very, very shy in HS. Life changes that. In my old age I had all the "kids" in class wanting to be in my group. Well, when you reach a certain age, you lose a lot of your inhibitions. You have lived too long to care what others, including professors, think of you. Hell, I LIVED through that in history. You just read about it in a book. lol

If you had told me in my teens I would feel this way in my 50s, I would not have believed you.

[SoDesuKa]

8. An A in Zest

I can imagine how annoying it can be around somebody bucking for an A in Zest. Good Lord.

[immoderate]

9. I was at a school that had some gung-ho "adherents" on staff.

I don't remember what educational guru they were following at the time, but reporting was a big buzz word. Six report cards a year, when most middle schools I had been at had four. For each student, their teachers had to letter grade their classwork, homework, effort, behavior, and some other things plus a written assessment that would be typed into a text box.

I should add, that it fell to me, the computer teacher, to produce a report card system that would collect all this data from the individual teachers, and produce the report student cards. I should also add that we were running Macs, the early cute ones, there was no Windows at the time. But there was HyperCard! I wrote the system and it worked(!) perfectly the first time.

The "adherents" (let me call them) wanted me to add a field for grading "Consistency." My remark was, "Is this about oatmeal?" But my colleague outshone me when she asked, "If a kid flunks every test, what should I grade him for consistency?" And that ended that meeting.

I should add, that when I looked through the reports, I noticed that the gung-ho teachers that most wanted to include large areas to assess the individual traits and anecdotal behaviors of their students, pasted boilerplate comments and 99% of their students got the same assessment. :rofl:

I transferred from that school, but they called me to do the report card. I said I would need a list of students, their home rooms, and a list of their classes and those teachers. They told me they couldn't create such a list.(!) The director didn't have that information.:shrug: We never got past that.

--imm

[YvonneCa]

10. Jerry Brown just did that...

...in a veto letter to Ca. legislature. :7