It is the 4th quarter of the school year 2022-2023 and finally, this is the last time I'll be doing admin tasks for this school year. I know there'll be more in the coming school years but I'd still like to have a moment and enjoy this break. (I mean the break that will come after I'm done with the mountain high pile of admin tasks that needs to be done.) One of the tasks that always needs to be done every quarter is grading.
When I started to formally homeschool my kid with our current homeschooling provider, I was thrown tons of questions about the way I provide education for my daughter. One of which was "How do you grade your child?" At the beginning of the school year, I honestly don't have any idea what kind of grading system will I use for my child. It's easy to become very subjective when it comes to appreciating your own child's work. When you try to be objective, there's that risk that you might be blind-sided on the emotional aspect of your child's development.
But the educator has to deal with a self-acting, self-developing being, and his business is to guide, and assist in, the production of the latent good in that being, the dissipation of the latent evil, the preparation of the child to take his place in the world at his best, with every capacity for good that is in him developed into a power.
-- Charlotte Mason
For the whole year, I spent all of my energy coming up with the most balanced way of grading my daughter. With our previous homeschooling provider, we used a modular approach where I have my daughter complete a workbook, answer all the activities and questionnaires, and then a teacher from the provider will "record" her grades. Her grades varied from 97-99. That should be enough to make a mom who grew up in a traditional schooling system ecstatic. And I was. I even shared my daughter's achievements in my social media account.
But knowing what I know now about a child's education, I felt guilty. I know that those grades were all based on how many correct answers she made on her exams. She worked hard to get those answers right. She reviewed with me and her Tatay on all the subjects. She did earn those grades. After discovering the idea of "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life," I now strongly believe in a liberal kind of education.
What is the purpose of Grades?
The dilemma I had when I found out that I should be the one to record the grades for my daughter was that I don't know how to remain objective but still recognize the efforts that my kid put into her work. At first, I thought of simply giving her a written quiz to test for information retention. But that defeats my main goal in our homeschooling journey. Plainly making her memorize texts and processes does not work for a holistic kind of education.
Are you educating just for the sake of information? Or for the sake of transformation?
This was the questions given to us when I attended one of the homeschooling webinars in our homeschooling provider. Transformation became the main focus of our school year. I find it more purposeful and intentional now that we have a specific goal or theme for the year. Focusing on that question, I then asked myself what will be the purpose of the grades I'll be writing down on my daughter's report card?
Grading as a Guide
When I first took on the full time job of homeschooling my daughter, I had a goal of being there to assist my daughter in her journey to becoming a thinking adult that can formulate her own opinions with a thirst for learning and education. At first I thought I should give her high grades as that would make her feel happy, thus, motivate her to do more. But it doesn't work that way. I realized that as our school year progressed. Giving her high grades just because is a great disservice to her in the long run.
Grades should not be something that would either make us feel good or terrible about ourselves. It should plainly be a gauge to tell us where we are at in our journey towards liberal education. It merely should give us a perspective whether we are on the right track in our homeschooling journey. Now, when I look at my daughter's grades, it serves as a guide whether we should slowdown or push forward with our lessons. It provides data that tells me whether I should continue with a difficult book we're reading or to let go of it.
Grading to improve oneself, not to Compete with others
Someone (who doesn't homeschool and doesn't agree that I should homeschool my child) once asked me "What if other parents give their kid a higher grade? How will she be in the honor roll?" We have been so used to the "healthy" competition that the traditional schooling imposes on children, it has subconsciously become a sport for parents. Students are often pressured to perform well in school so that they'll graduate top of the class. While this aims to make children competitive adults, this also sets them to view studying, learning, and education a stressful endeavor.
They end up becoming adults so bent on becoming the best among the rest, focusing on numbers and outputs. Learning should be something a child falls in love with and they'll bring that love of learning until they mature. To answer that question from that someone, I just told them I am teaching my kid that her only competition is herself. Yes, she should always strive to become better but she should never compare herself with others. It is best that as early as now, she understands that each and everyone of us has their own journey, and that it is futile to aim to be better than everybody else.
As part of our grading system, I asked my kid to look at her previous work (as in her copyworks) and see if there is improvement. As if automatically, she points out areas where she did great, and recognizes parts of her work that needs to be improved. One of the lessons I teach her is learning to love herself. Along with that, she is also taught self awareness. This way, she knows herself even more, thus helping me know her more as well. This makes it all the more easy for her to improve but still accept her limitations as an individual.
In conclusion...
I used to dread having to grade my daughter. This is one of the parts of our homeschooling journey I find really challenging. I did not want to set my kid up for failure, but I also don't want to give her too much high hopes. I want the grading to be as fair, as useful, as objective as can be. Whenever I find myself struggling with how to grade her work, I only look back at the purpose and intention of our homeschooling journey.
Grades should be a tool for self improvement, not the end goal of education. It is true, grades aren't just numbers. They aren't a badge of honor that we should display either. They are there to guide us and keep us on track with our goals. We should not be blinded by what they so call healthy competition. At the end of the day, our children's education - that is education aiming for transformation, not merely information - is all that matters.
