During the first Reggio Inspired Workshop for the year, participants were speaking about the push for ‘evidence’ and the belief that, somehow, assigning a number or a letter to a child’s achievement makes it more credible. Marie remarked that ‘grading is degrading’ while also attributing the quote to Ivan Illich. A search on ‘Ivan Illich’ and ‘grading is degrading’ led to Alfie Kohn’s writings on assessment and grading, a fabulous article by James Allen, an interview with Ivan Illich, extracts of ‘Deschooling Society’ and quotes from Neil Postman in Christine Pearson Casanave and Miguel Sosa’s Respite for Teachers.At this stage, we haven’t found the direct quote for ‘grading is degrading’ (!) but this reading has rekindled our belief that there are betters way of providing information to children, families, teachers and school systems about children’s learning.

 

This thinking tied in well with our work on Consumer and Finance Literacy and the needs of generation y and z students for visual and kinaesthetic learning experiences that are not compartmentalised and allow them to connect to friends and pursue personal satisfaction.  And if we couple these needs with those of generation x teachers who thrive on change, need to feel a sense of achievement and are seeking opportunities for career progression in a flexible work environment, we have the ingredients for a very different looking schooling system!