A “FF” Means “a Fatal Fear” For You ?

            How would you feel if you wore a t-shirt on which there is a word “Loser”. A lot of you answer this question as of horrible, debased or debauched. A college student who is not succesful in a course is made to put on this t-shirt unconsciously. Getting FF makes a student feel like wearing that t-shirt. Although there are some people claim that grading system has positive effects on students, it has more negative effects than positives. In a world, being only goal, grades are detrimental to a student’s education.

Those people claiming that grading system has positive effects say that a student who get FF or sub-A grades see his situation in a course and study harder for getting it better, which is true. But  thinking mechanism can’t skip the sorrowing period. In this period, student may not be able to think steadly. He feel grounded. This is because, a hierarchical grading system marks some students above others. Students think that the way to be successful isn’t getting high score, is getting higher scores than others or we can say that it becomes a competition.

Despite the fact that competition helps student improve individual achievement, important for personal development, the goal of education is to learn together as a group. Competition usually discourages students from working together and finally learning. Working in a group is so important that they need it throughout their lifes.

Although there are positive results of education like peer working, students still see themselves unsuccessful when they get sub-A grades. “A” grade seems a mark of success for both students and parents. They don’t classify any grade below it as praiseworthy, howsoever they make their grade, for example, from CC to BB. Sometimes, student do everything he can do, but he can’t get hoped grade. In this case, parents should comfort student and motivate him to study harder to get better grade. This should be done by teacher, too.

In addition to motivate student, teachers also help his students by giving specific assignments of which grades show a student’s academic ability. Teacher should do constructive criticism on student’s work. A lot of teachers do it. But the key is student, again. Students often ignore their teacher’s comments and only focus on their grades. Actually, by ignoring this comments, students ignore the opportunities for developing his work. A graded work seems a finished assignment that can’t be developed for students. Feedbacking period is benefical if student play his role at this period.

It appears that grades have sembolic meanings for students and the proportion of sembolic grades showing success is limited to “A”. Before letting this letters harm student’s education, educators should consider whether these letters really show students performance. When a student see a “FF”, the first thing which comes to his brain should be “non Flourished Feat” instead of “Fatal Fear”.