Dear All, I am in complete agreement with the people who wrote about the necessity of having a school grade in order to reward weak(ish) hard-working pupils and as a motivating tool. I would also like to add another point to the debate of whether or not we should have school grades - the issue of pupils who suffer from different levels of exam anxiety, and for whom the exam grade simply doesn't reflect their knowledge. I know this because I'm one of them - throughout my 'school career', age 6 to 46 (when I received my PhD) I did considerably better in situations where I had to write papers than in situations where I had to pass exams (and don't even ask how long it took me to get a driver's license), and I remember well the feeling of injustice I experienced every time I got a grade which I knew was lower than what I really deserved. Just something else to think about (and BTW, according to the research there's more of us who suffer from this condition than most people know). Orly Dr. Orly Sela Head - Department of English Language and Literature Oranim Academic College of Education Email: orlysela@xxxxxxxxxxxx Tel: +972-52-3358643 ----------------------------------------------- ** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org or - http://www.etni.org.il ** ** for help - ask@xxxxxxxx ** ** to post to this list - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** -----------------------------------------------