MAC Week 1 Reading-Oh my "A"ching heart!

I think I'm hyperventilating.

I mean, I started off reading The Art of Possibility with nods and agreeable gestures, but by the time I reached Chapter 3, "Giving an A", my heart was racing, each breath became shallower, and my insides were jumping out of my body as the things I've been studying and reading and thinking for the past year were validated by professionals who were asked to write a book by Harvard!!!

Zander's idea of giving all students an "A" with such a profound string attached was completely exhilarating! I cannot express how joyful my teacherly little heart is to hear that simply by eliminating the anxiety-inducing extrinsic reward to get down to the real business of learning for learning's sake. Reading through the letters, it was completely evident that removing the grade was life-changing for these students, because they were able to truly evaluate themselves, and judge themselves on their own merit instead of some outward "invented" standard.

One part that really stood out to me, was at the beginning when he mentions something about the students being so anxious about their performance assessment that they never took the risk of actually feeling the music. Can that not be said about our students and these high stakes tests? The poor kids are so stressed about getting a passing score to be able to move on to the next grade level, get out of intensive reading or math, or get a high school diploma, that they cannot stop to enjoy learning, explore passions and think deeper about a subject. Isn't it about time we let everybody have an A so learning can finally begin?