Marks
My husband fives me an A
for last night's supper,
an incomplete for my ironing,
a B plus in bed.
My son says I am average,
an average mother, but it
I put my mind to it
I could improve.
My daughter believes
in Pass/Fail and tells me
I pass. Wait 'til they learn
I'm dropping out.
--Linda Pastan
This particular writing into the day had me thinking in my day book... "Don't we all judge and grade ourselves, often times too harshly. Not only do we grade ourselves, but we think others are grading us also. Do "regular" people do this also - or just teachers? Maybe everyone does it - but without the grades. How can people get to the point of not doing? Can I get there, please?"
We do seem to live in a culture where the economy is in grades. We are always leveling and evaluating; judging and ranking; comparing ourselves to others. How freeing it would be not, for once, to judge--but to really see what is there--to notice what is working on us and how it is working. If we can free ourselves from grades, we might be able to open up new possibilities, to value things in new ways.
ReplyDeleteJenny, your post has me thinking about this approach I have been studying, Non-Violent Communication (NVC), it's really about this starting point of moving our internal dialogue before we can shift our dialogue with others. So there is this cultural story of leveling that is just hard to get out of our heads because it so prevalent. Anyway, NVC asks us to be aware of when we are doing this (internally or externally) and to just witness ourselves... and then move to self empathy and hopefully empathy for others. Anyway, I am thinking the education world could use a lot of empathy. Well, not sure that you were looking for this lecture, but it was on my mind as I read.
ReplyDeleteYojenny,
ReplyDeleteI too struggle with self assessment. I wish I had more though. It may sound pathetic, but I miss the days when I knew exactly where I stood with the onslaught of constant assessment. Perhaps, This is so because because of the attention it brings rather than the assessments themselves. However, I am starting to understand though that assessment is not to be trusted as a Truth. How can we still provide the attention to the individual, and yet free ourselves from the assessment lens we do it with?
Oh and Ka Kaw
Nicholas
These are great thoughts Jenny! I struggle also with the idea that something somewhere is always being graded. I feel it can definitely be in school, as is what is expected right? But I also think subconsciously everyone is "grading" everyone. Isn't a form of grading really judgement? Not completely letter grades...but at least a system of ranking? It is very sad! I wish it would just quit. "Can't we all just get along?" Shoot, if everyone was like our writing group, or even S.I. group, I think it would be achievable :)
ReplyDeleteI see grading as judging and I hace a really ard time with all of it.
ReplyDelete