Abolish Grades?

For John, BLUF:  If we abolish grades, how does a teacher signal that someone is in the wrong field of study?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Prof calls to get rid of grades because they are 'capitalism in action'

Here are the sub-headlines:

• New School professor Richard Wolff is known for his outspoken views against capitalism.
• He recently asserted that capitalism is being propped up by “meritocracy,” and that therefore “all levels” of education should do away with grading scales.

From Campus Reform, by Investigative Reporter Celine Ryan, 6 Aug 2019.

Here is the lede plus three:

A New York professor is calling for the abolition of grades.  He claims they are not only unfair to students, but that they are a means of propping up capitalism, and as such, academia would be better off doing away with grading entirely.

“Grading takes up much of my time that could be better spent on teaching or otherwise directly interacting with students,” New School professor Richard Wolff wrote in a Monday op-ed entitled “Grades Are Capitalism in Action.  Let’s Get Them Out of Our Schools.”  He claims the practice of administering grades to students has “little educational payoff” and “disrespects [students] as thinking people.”

Wolff has been known to promote Marxism and condemn capitalism, even going so far as to blame capitalism for American homelessness.   More recently, he made headlines by comparing President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler on Twitter.

According to Wolff, the practice of grading is one that has served to prop up America’s capitalist economic system and its “major failures,” including "socially divisive inequalities” and the creation of “boring, dangerous, and/or mind-numbing” jobs.  He asserts that capitalism’s survival can be attributed only to flawed human ideologies, one of which is the concept of “meritocracy.”  Grades, he says, are one of many “mechanisms” used to “anchor” the concept of meritocracy in society.

I wonder if Professor Wolff has considered that some students may be differently learning abled and need grades to succeed?

I wonder if Professor Wolff ever contemplates that if not for capitalism he would be living as a serf in Europe, rather than as a Professor at the New School?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff