Re:Glo/teaching

[Guest guest]

>Dear Dan and Harsha,

>

>A- or A+... let me tell you, I spent my Jr year in England - a university

>system where no grades are given because only the final examination

>counts...try re-testing some of your students 3 yrs from now and see what

>they have retained?

>Since we were only going to either pass or fail and no grades to affect any

>grade averages...the effort depended entirely upon "other factors", such as

>wanting to actually understand Existentialism enough to write a paper worthy

>of discussion with my highly esteemed and admired philosophy professor in a

>2 students with her tutorial..one never knew what penetrating questions she

>might come up with next. She also inspired me to read many of the classics

>of Christian mysticism merely by her indefinable presence. I remember some

>of her precise words and comments to this day, she had such an impact on me.

>We also "lived" Shakespeare that year, speaking to one another in our

>favorite quotations from the various plays. We read British novelists who

>then came to meet us for a question session in person. I have retained over

>the rest of my life far more from that one year than the other three put

>together. I quite honestly feel as a result that you have a much more

>difficult challenge to inspire a love for learning WITH a grade sysytem.

>Somehow I am certain you both must be quite good at challenging your

>students to really think deeply no matter what.

>

>With love,

>Glo

 

Glo - to be honest, the teaching system is not to my taste. Grades are

about society's goals, not mine. Grades are acquisition, comparison,

adversarial relations, achievement. Grades are, essentially, a

form of hostility. Grades encourage a "getting" mentality, far

from thinking deeply and even farther from love/awareness as such.

Let the show go on! -- with love -- Dan