Do we really need grades?

Perhaps in this moment more than ever, there is a lot of conversation around grades and grading policy in our schools—in all sorts of directions, too, from Harvard faculty voting to place a cap on A’s to the University of Michigan withholding letter grades for their incoming class of freshmen , instead using a pass/fail system for the first semester. So it felt like the right time to have a conversation around grading. Joining this episode around grading is Susan Blum, an anthropology professor at Notre Dame and the author of many books around education and learning—including most recently Schoolishness: Alienated Education and the Quest for Authentic, Joyful Learning . In this episode, Susan shares about her own journey away from traditional grading, her perspective on what is happening with grading in this moment, and what a potential better path forward could look like. To follow Susan’s work, you can find more at her website www.susanblum.com as well as her Substack newsletter Susan D Blum Muses . Along with Schoolishness , these other two books by Susan might also be of interest for listeners to this conversation: * Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) * “I Love Learning; I Hate School”: An Anthropology of College Thanks, as always, to Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; and Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden . * Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com , and on Instagram @banduncivilized. * Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com , and on Instagram @djsynchro. You can email us here with feedback or any other questions as well: thebrokencopier@substack.com . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com