Too many anxiety crises among students after questions or homework, too many tears after a call to the blackboard by the teacher that ended up perhaps with an 'unprepared'.
Thus the Giordano Bruno classical-scientific high school in Mestre (Venice) decides to experiment with a four-month period of lessons without grades, replacing them with less merciless judgments.
The boys continue to make the checks established by the teachers but, at the end, there is no longer the classic vote.
Instead, we talk about "results achieved" written in green or "preparation to improve" in red with specific details of the sore points.
At the end of the quarter, of course, there will be a vote and it will end up directly on the report card.
All of this, in the intentions of the school manager, Michela Michieletto, should help manage stress and teach students not to experience a bad judgment in the classroom as a demotivating accident on the path that leads to maturity.
The first year teachers underlined the problem above all, and extended the discussion to parents and class councils.
In the end it was decided to try the alternative route to votes.
The oral and written tests on scholastic preparation are carried out as before but at the end the homework is not judged with the classic marks from 1 to 10. To smooth out the sharp edges of some judgments that are too trenchant, it is preferred to highlight the painful points with specific annotations that pass from "the syntax doesn't work" to "the reflection must be deepened".
Absolutely convinced of the goodness of the initiative is Bruno's head teacher.
"I've been thinking about starting an experiment of this type for a while - he says - now we've found the opportunity. We've chosen some particular contexts, some specific classes: one at Bruno, at the scientific one, has already started, another will always start to the scientific and perhaps he will start a third to the classic".
All this with the
intention to solve a problem that teachers are faced with more and more frequently.
"We are trying to find solutions - concludes Michieletto, also worried about the drop in enrollments in high school -. We cannot remain deaf to the discomfort of the kids"