[nwah1]

In some classes, where grades can be determined purely subjectively, instructors can use effort-based logic as a guiding principle.

The problems, however, are multifold.

I remember a high school art class where I just had a complete writers-block - or maybe artists-block - and was not able to do much on a large pencil drawing while sitting in class. I just couldn't work while seated in rows with everyone else sketching away, for some reason.

But as the deadline came due, I sat down at home and sketched for 16 hours straight, barely even stopping for eating. It required so much shading that my hand hurt like never before. It ended up looking quite good, from what everyone told me.

When the grades came back, I had a D, while others who had much worse looking and mostly unshaded drawings received Bs. Naturally, I asked about this, and I was told that I must not have put in much effort, because he didn't see me putting in effort.

My burning rage at this event and the entire logic behind it all has been permanently seared into my memory.

[Noos]

Actually it's a good lesson I think.

You can't really sustain what you did long term. You have to learn how to draw in every situation over a longer period of time to do well. You can't binge draw like this over the long term and be healthy; you could very well have not been able to overcome the drawing by talent alone and have been unable to seek the teacher's help through technique.

Teachers don't just care about the result, they also want you to learn good process too.

[rleigh]

The same could also be said of the world of work.

I have to write code in an open plan office which I find uncomfortable, noisy, distracting and without any sense of personal space. I'm vastly more productive at home. But I can't mess around at work all day, and then do all my productive work in the evening; I have to force myself to get to it.

Unfortunately, employers as a whole would rather see the appearance of productive work rather than create an environment that fosters actual work. It's alleged that saving money is the reason, but I struggle to see how the huge waste of human capital makes any rational sense.

[conductr]

Seems like a decent life lesson though. I wonder how this would have played out if you communicated with your teacher. Either telling them you were having trouble being productive in class, or When you turned in your work by telling him how much work you put in at home.

It's important that you tell people how much effort you spend on things when they don't see it happen. It's true in so many ways; you learned it early.

Also I'd add that something like art class is particularly hard to grade because you don't want to let the naturally gifted coast through. You want to hold everyone to higher individual standards. The teacher may have thought this must have been easy for you and if you put in more effort it could have been way better. Not always right, but sounds like that was the info available to him.

[lagadu]

> you don't want to let the naturally gifted coast through.

As someone who isn't in the arts field at all, so please bear with my probable ignorance: why do you not want to let them coast through?

Each class has a set of requirements that need to be passed and the pupil's level of performance at it graded; if someone is gifted at it then they're already at a high performance level.

To put it in a way that's more related to me: I'm a software engineer and lets say that I decide to go take some first year software engineering classes again, particularly the ones related to learning how to program: I will blow through the classes in 1/5th of the time while playing a game on another monitor and still do very well. Shouldn't I get a high grade despite the fact that I put a lot more effort into my invasion of the Soviet Union while playing Japan on Hearts of Iron while I was also developing?

[TremendousJudge]

My guess is that kids are different than adults. You don't want kids sitting bored in class because it's easy for them. It's awful (speaking from experience here). They either turn inside and do nothing, or disturb the class. You don't want the smart kids to learn less, you want them to learn more

[charlesdm]

Making them work harder for the same grade doesn't mean they still won't be bored, though.

[nwah1]

This was the story of my entire educational career. The gifted underachiever who instructors took a special interest in.

However, teaching people life lessons in the form of a permanent black mark on their record isn't exactly for their own good. For better or worse, those high school grades do actually matter for college admittance.

Yet, maybe they did me a favor. I was able to underachieve to my heart's content at a college full of dummies. Who really needs a prestigious college anyhow.

[EGreg]

Might I suggest that, like Full Time Employment, the Classroom setting is trying to be too many things to too many people and is too one-size-fits-all?

Rather than make this a long comment, here is what I think should be done:

http://magarshak.com/blog/?p=158