Collectively, grades are sh*t. People often think students at the bottom of the ranks are the most likely to cheat; however, research has shown, students with higher goals experience pressure from their families, making them more likely to cheat.

Why do students cheat? Is it because of an enticing reward from their parents if they earn a 95? Is it for their parents to be recognized for having a child attend a top intuition of higher learning?

Students cheat because schools value grades over learning.

If we look at cheating as the problem, we are only touching the tip of the iceberg. In this 21st century, where neoliberalism has penetrated our educational institutions, students see the demands of the corporate world and prefer courses that will lead them to the ultimate prize – a fast-track, high-paying career.

Schools have become markets and, since society is dictated by credentials, classmates are the competition. Since earning high grades at a recognized school is apparently the ultimate measure of intelligence, it has since given birth to this new religion of “grade consciousness.”

Paul Tillich defines religion as, “The state of being grasped by an ultimate concern, a concern which qualifies all other concerns as preliminary and which itself contains the answer to the question of a meaning of our life;” then being grade conscious is a form of religion – paraphrasing Matthew 6:21: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Students are willing to undertake unethical practices just to pass their “competitors;” some are even driven to suicide because they would rather be dead than live a meaningless life where their grade point average is below 95. Such peculiarities with the grade conscious can be seen with followers of the People’s Temple, a cult that resulted in members drinking kool-aid mixed with cyanide, believing their “revolutionary suicide” would shield them from the ills of the outside world.

Like any religion, with its dogmas and doctrines, teachers are a mere commodity; in some cases, an instrument in determining grades, which are the tickets to success. Grades define one’s being and can be an indicator of their future income.

Prayer is also an important part of religious life and, in terms of the grade conscious, students often chit-chat with teachers, even invite them to their birthday parties, in an effort to remain connected in order for the student to later make requests of their teacher or school administrators. For the grade conscious, letters (from both student and parent) pile up in the director or principal’s office ahead of graduation because those writing the letters believe they can bargain their way to graduation (for example, a student believing they should be valedictorian after attending a seminar in Baguio City or one contesting the grades of another student – for colleges, some demand the distinction of manga cum laude, despite earning a 2.75 in physical education).

The impact grades make, to the point where it leads to aggressiveness, can lead to the awakening of a predatory nature to compete or to torpedo a “competitor” to get on top.

Teachers are also to blame. Many post rankings on the wall, which creates a type of segregation among students. It creates division and, as Thomas Hobbes said, “Homo homini lupus,” or “the man is a wolf to another man.”

Grade can also act as a depressant or stimulant.

The primary reason student rebels or prefer not to go to school is because grades are used as a yardstick to measure a person’s intellectual abilities. Some students become depressed after finding out they did not make the honor roll; others lie or tear up their report cards, fearing repercussions once they arrive home.

If religion encompasses a community, then grades have their own such connections as families celebrate their children’s successes with special tokens or gifts. Their medals are placed sacramentally in altars, while others are recognized through elaborate rituals, comprised of excessive adjectives.

All religions have apocalyptic stories – the end of times. When students graduate, they realize the quantitative evaluations received in school are meaningless in society.

Skills are what is needed.

What needs dismantling is this philosophy that suggests better grades are the be-all and end-all of education.

Grades will fade and become more irrelevant as time goes by, but an ability to serve people and to question everything is priceless.

As Mao Zedong said in rectifying the party style in work, “They proceed from a primary school of that sort to a university of that sort, they take a diploma, and are regarded as stocked with knowledge.” He continued, “But all that they have is knowledge of books and they have not yet taken part in any practical activities, nor have they applied, in any branch of social life, the knowledge they have acquired… their knowledge is not yet complete.”

“The most important thing is [to] be well-versed in applying such knowledge in life and in practice,” Mao concluded./WDJ