The Article “Grades and Money” by Steve Vogel talks about how much grades today tie into our currency. Vogel explains that when he was younger grades were never spoken about. He was extremely surprised by how different his college students were; grades are talked about religiously and the students orient their whole lives around them. This got Vogel thinking about what grades really mean. His conclusion led to reality that grades are in fact fake money. This felt wrong to Vogel, our society has always said that the point of education is to learn. Society has not been following that point. If you ask any student why they want to get a high grade, it is to raise their GPA, so they may get into a better school, and so that school will get them a better job where they will earn better money. It is all important for something else, but not important for itself. Getting a high grade no longer shows how much you’ve learned, but how much money you want to get paid.
I am extremely happy that there was finally a paper I could read that explains the similarity between grades and money, for I have thought about how the two are linked many times. There has always been a question in the back of my mind as to why it is so important that we get high grades. I was always told that the reason was; to get into a good college so I can get a good job and make a lot of money. This is the reality of our society, I wish I could have been told; the reason why I should get good grades is so that I can learn and become enlightened. So that maybe one day, I can aid in the advancement of society. However, this is not the case. Money is the main motivating factor in the education system. This comes as no surprise to me because money is the main motivating factor in everything that our nation takes part in. Schools have classes cut or enlarged due to insufficient funds given by our government. This entails the statement in Vogels’ article which is about how important society says learning is, however, “this is what we say, but it is not the way we act,”
I want to learn as much as I can, but the way colleges are set up I cannot take all the classes I want to learn something in, without being afraid of failing. If I fail I will not be successful in life. If I am not successful in life I cannot take care of myself, and will not be able to start a family. This is a fear that many students of all ages share. So, I must succumb to societies’ ways and do everything in my power to get good grades. If I don’t get good grades I will not make good money, and if I don’t make good money I will not be able to take care of myself and those I love.
Vogel states in his article that, “by tying grades to money we give students incentives not to take risks.” I highly agree with this. The risk of failing is too high for students to try and excel themselves. I believe this will create a nation of people who could have done great things but because of the system are content with making 100,000 dollars each year. Our country has a lot of talent but it is muffled by what we all value the most; a green piece of paper. Vogel tries to tell his students that grades mean nothing but is always met with incredulous stares. This comes me as no surprise as I was raised throughout my whole life with the knowledge that if I could not get good grades I would end up being a failure. Above all else I do not want to fail. This is why I am currently enrolled in college classes during my senior year of high school. However, my English Composition, and my Comparative Religion classes are my escape. I am not in these classes just to earn a grade. In English class I write and read so much that no matter what, I am learning. (As much as I would like to put a smiley face behind that statement to show my passion, it would be inappropriate for the college level response paper I am dishing out) This is what gives me hope for my future. Classes like these show that there are others who think just like me, a perfect example being Steve Vogel.
To get more information on how grades and money are compared I interviewed my mother, who is a fourth grade teacher at Sopris Elementary School. I asked her one simple question, and that is how grades and money linked. Her exact words are as followed, “American society communicates to us that if you get good grades then you can get into college, if you go to college and graduate with good grades, then you can earn more money. I am not saying that this is necessarily true; but that this is what society leads us to believe is true. Basically, this creates a high stakes competition, in a nut shell kids do not learn to learn, they learn to get good grades. Society tells them that this is what they need to do to be happy, just how society told us in the 50’s that the whole goal in life was to graduate, get a good job, get married, and be taken care of by the corporations for which they work for. This is not true nowadays because of how corporations have stopped taking care of their employees like they used to. However, if you do not graduate from college with a degree, your options are extremely limited. Now this is not completely right, but it is reality. For example, your father had been working construction his whole life without a college degree and had two partners. On the construction exam he had to take he aced it on his first try, where it took his two partners (with degrees) four times to ace. However in the end they were the ones who were paid more. Society does not look upon someone by how intelligent they are but by if they have a degree. It’s sad but just the way it is.”
I despise how much grades and money are linked. I love school for the fact of learning, but today I feel like I am memorizing more for tests, than I actually am learning for myself. In my high school at Glenwood Springs there were so many standards that students nearly drowned in them. To be successful in the schooling system one must master the art of following directions. If you can do what someone tells you to, to the best of your ability, you may get very good grades. There is no learning involved in this though. Nothing is going to be done about it, however, do to the fact that grades make money. As Steve Vogel said, “We let grades count as money-we let education count as money-because money, nowadays, is the only value we know”