Analyzing an Argumentative Essay: “Grades and Self- Esteem”
What is self- esteem? Self- esteem is confidence in one’s own worth or abilities. In “Grades & Self- Esteem”, author Randy Moore (2007) stated that the level of performance of the students decreased while schools are building the self- esteem in the students. Author Alfie Kohn (1994) stated in his article “The Truth about Self- Esteem” to contradict Moore’s opinion that academics and self- esteem are not related. Moore discussed some beneficial points which are useful for the students, but in some cases his argument was not giving better meaning. I agree from Moore’s article that the American students do not perform as well academically as students from other countries. I do not agree from Moore’s opinion that the emphasis on self- esteem is responsible for the poor performance. Where as the student’s level of self- esteem may not determine his or her future, good self- esteem can motivate the student to study hard and reach his or her academic potential.
Randy Moore (2007) stated that people are complaining that students are not good in academic performance: “Only 11% of eight- graders in California’s public schools can solve seventh – grade math problems” (p. 118). Kie Ho (2007) gave an example of complaints by the immigrant that German said on his son’s first day as a freshman, his school included multiplication and division on his mathematics test (p. 112). Moore (2007) stated that, due to too many mistakes by U. S workers, the tasks are moved to other countries. In my opinion, the reason for outsourcing the work is that in other countries the labor cost is cheaper compared to America and also America has good economy, so Moore‘s opinion was not acceptable.
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...nce. High self- esteem could lead to over- confidence which engage the students in doing wrong activities. Low self- esteem could lead to depressions, which allow the students to attempt suicide. Both high and low self- esteem causes the students in different ways.
References
Ho, K. (2007). We should cherish our children’s freedom to think. In R. Spack (Ed.), Guidelines: A cross-cultural reading/writing text (pp. 112-114). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Kohn, A. (1994). The truth about self- esteem Phi Delta Kappan, 76(4), 272-283.
Kohn, A. (2002). The dangerous myth of grade inflation The Chronical of Higher Education, 49(11), p. B7.
Moore, R. (2007). Grades and self-esteem. In R. Spack (Ed.), Guidelines: A cross-cultural reading/writing text (pp. 125-126). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Self-esteem is confidence in one’s own worth or abilities or self-respect. Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston and Jefferson from A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines both struggle with establishing a positive self-esteem or a sense of self-worth. Both characters get so overwhelmed by the supremacy of someone or something around them that they doubt their own power, thus, creating a feeling of doubt for themselves and the voice that they have. In order to gain a sense of high self-esteem, a person must endure points of self-doubt.
In the op-ed, “Grade Inflation Gone Wild,” Stuart Rojstaczer addresses the concern of grade inflation and its effects on students. Rojstaczer uses several different methods to prove his point of view to the reader. Rojstaczer links grade inflation to the sinking quality of education, as well as the rise of college alcoholics. While this op-ed does a satisfactory job appealing to the reader on a person-person basis, many of Rojstaczer’s main claims do not hold any scholarly evidence. This analysis over “Grade Inflation Gone Wild” will discuss whether Rojstaczer has written this editorial solely to convince readers of his opinion, or does Rojstaczer present a credible claim in higher education’s grade inflation.
“Making the Grade” by Kurt Wiesenfeld Newsweek magazine, June 27 1996 brings to light an issue that has been glazed over by society for some time, grade inflation. It’s highly disturbing that “we lament that schoolchildren get “kicked upstairs” until they graduate from high school despite being illiterate and mathematically inept, but we seem unconcerned with college graduates whose less blatant deficiencies are far more harmful, if their accreditation exceeds their qualifications”. The issue of grade inflation is not simply an issue of students feeling entitled to higher grades than they have earned, it is a problem that directly impacts our society in a multitude of negative ways. Perhaps the “gold star” mentality started out with the good intentions of creating children with positive self-esteem, however, a direct result is lazy adults with a sense of entitlement for no reason, who lack qualifications to adequately and safely perform their jobs.
Self-esteem involves evaluations of self-worth. People with high self-esteem tend to think well of others and expect to be accepted them.
The author was a freshman at Princeton University when this article was written. He seems to have enough drive and determination in order to embrace grade deflation compared to his peers, who complained and disagreed with the grading system, which is what started this essay.
I have always valued school and enlarging my intelligence; I receive a sense of pride from earning a decent grade on a paper or on a particular assignment. Alfie Kohn wrote an essay titled “From Degrading to De-grading”; in it he suggests a different view on the current education system. Even though students expect marks and even seem dependent on them, grading should spur on a love of studying not deter it. Grades tend to reduce a student’s inclination for stimulating tasks, and lessen students’ interest in erudition.
In order to comprehend this article, one must have a concept of self-esteem. Self- esteem is the personal evaluation of one’s worth as a person. Most individuals subject self-esteem as the “feeling that one is ‘good enough.” Also, individuals believe those with high self- esteem tend to believe they are superior to others, which is not necessarily true. Another inaccurate assumption on self- esteem interprets that talents and abilities are influential on self-esteem. Also, self- esteem is not
Self-esteem includes confidence, achievement, respect of others, and a need to be a unique individual. Being confident looks good on everyone, though some are more confident than others it still is needed to better yourself. Someone that gives there all nonstop and always does there best and never tries to take short cuts are the ones that everyone envies in school. They are the ones that get praised by all the teachers and they get awarded for doing their best. This can be both good and bad, good because then it shows the student that they are doing good and it makes themselves feel a lot better and it gives them confidence. Bad though because then it makes the other students feel bad about them and that causes their self-esteem to drop. Getting respect by a teacher and giving it is important to maintain a great classroom environment. If both parties are getting the respect needed, then everything works out in perfect harmony and the student can continue to work hard and the teacher can continue to help the student work
Former professor of geophysics, Stuart Rojstaczer, in his informative op-ed piece, “Grade Inflation Gone Wild,” featured in “Christian Science Monitior(2009),” investigates grade inflation among universities today. Rojstaczer’s purpose is to inform and educate universities on the inflation of grades, and how an A has become the average grade among those schools. He adopts a dismissive tone when generalizing and addressing the students on their behaviors and actions. Rojstaczer found over 80 universities with data on they’re grades, using this he was able to better understand the inflation and also analyze possible solutions. His logos based writing portrays a negative connotation on todays students and their ability to achieve within the classroom. There is no hiding that the standard for grades has been on the rise sense the 1960’s, and is now at an average GPA of a 3.0, but rojstaczer may have lost his audience with his arrogant approach.
Goode, Stephen and Maier, Timothy W. “ Inflating the Grades” Dissent Fall 1997: 102-04 in Mary Lynch Kennedy and Haley M. Smith. Reading and writing in the Academic Community. 2nd ed, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall 2001. 345-350.
When students arrive at university, professors expect them to understand the material to an exceptional standard. The problem is that grade inflation is occurring more regularly in secondary schools and universities across the country and when these students’ marks are sent to universities or colleges, the student may be given multiple scholarships for something that he/she should not have earned. Grade inflation is conceived between both students and teachers, meaning that the students are given higher grades when they have inadequate learning, reading, and verbal skills, while the teachers do not have to grade as many papers as they should in the real curriculum. There have been multiple examinations that have confirmed that grade inflation is very real and still occurs today. Students seem to think that they do not need to put forth much effort in school to do well and grade inflation encourages this thought.
After reviewing both studies it can be concluded that an individual’s self-esteem changes based on their relationship status, ethnicity, personality characteristics and a possible effect on gender. Individuals that have high self-esteem are usually individuals that are outgoing, energetic and easy going. Those individuals have a lot of friends and are sociable. Adolescence self –esteem can be based on how popular they are in school those adolescences that are popular will have a higher self-esteem opposed to the adolescence that are more reserved, and that do not have many friends. Individual’s self- esteem can change during their twenties and sometimes into their thirties and beyond.
Traditional grading system will be my focus of this essay. Grading as numbers or letters, a conventional way of assessing students’ achievement, is one part of education and has been lately in controversy in USA. The argument is that the conventional grading practice is not in support of the ultimate objectives of education. In fact, it is in conflict with the values of education. Thus in this essay, I will argue that traditional grading does not play the role it is supposed to play and it is time to have a new and better alternative to this.
Zimmerman, M. A., Copeland, L. A., Shope, J. T., & Dielman, T. E. (1997). A longitudinal study of self-esteem: Implications for adolescent development. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 26, 117-141. DOI 10.1023/A:1024596313925
This study’s focus on self-esteem’s influence on academic success is directly related to the current study because the implication of this study completed by C. Brown et al. is that the relationship between self-esteem and academic success is not significant. The current study will define self-esteem using different measures from the self-esteem assessment created by Rosenberg (1965) which was used by C. Brown et al. However, this study will use the same construct to measure academic success, which is the current GPA of the college student. The constructs measured in the current study will focus only on the correlation between self-esteem and academic success in an effort to see if a relationship exists within the current sample of students. The hypothesis for this study is that there is a positive correlation between the self-esteem of a college student and his or her academic