If “Niche” website’s recent rankings of Hockaday haven’t made it perfectly clear, students are all under constant academic pressure to be the best of the best and outperform one another in everything, from our final grade in English class to the number of clubs we join. This alone can be extremely overwhelming, driving students into an abyss of self-doubt, burnout and unnecessary stress. When you add constant grade access into the mix, it gets even more difficult to manage.
Imagine it’s that final week before winter break and you’re swamped with work, staying up past midnight just to get everything done. Then, as you are scouring OnCampus to make sure you didn’t miss anything, you see a grade book button looming on your browser menu. Succumbing to your anxiousness and curiosity, you tap it only to find yourself swirling for another hour over your B in English with crushed spirits and shattered confidence.
This isn’t just a hypothetical situation; it is a real-life scenario that many students at schools with easy grade access experience.
As someone who attended a school with an on-demand gradebook for most of my life, I know firsthand the detrimental effects of this access on mental health, balance, performance and confidence. Access to grades prompts students to obsess over their academic standing within an environment that is already rigorous and competitive. Rather than focusing on what they need to get done, students spend their time staring anxiously at their grade books, wasting time instead of being productive.
With our current system of each grade being available upon request rather than consistently logged, we are able to complete assignments without constantly wondering what our grades will be after it. Programming our brains to take a break from academics after a difficult assignment, this lack of access greatly boosts our mental health. With more sufficient time to decompress, we can maintain a better balance between our school lives and personal lives.
Our brains crave downtime so we can process, interpret and retain information learned at school. Having less access to grades forces us to moderate our time and have a more balanced lifestyle, allowing us to not only get better test scores, but feel more confident in each of our assignments.
I completely understand the appeal of having access to our grades, but the pros are highly outweighed by the cons. So, the next time you are annoyed that you can’t see your average in a class, I urge you to think about the consequences of if you had regular grade access. Would it truly make you feel more confident, or would it cause you to spiral?
