I don't like the grading system either, and I don't really know anyone who does (and I know a lot of academics). I only assign number grades because I HAVE to...the university system requires it and truth to tell, if my students didn't have some kind of rating system, they wouldn't do jack shit. The numbers mean GPA which means HOPE scholarship. Vanishingly few of my students ever come and talk to me about their writing in terms other than "How can I make an A?" I just looked at a batch of writing assignments meant to prepare my students to write their first major paper and improve their skills generally; because they didn't have a high numerical value attached, many of them blew the assignments off.
As for the genderqueer stuff...I can't help but wonder if you are judging people too harshly. I consider myself genderqueer in some sense, but I don't think it's *possible* to be "genderfree." As a radical feminist I like your non-gendered word choices but as a writer and former editor they make me twitch a little. Does someone have to ascribe to your philosophy in order for you to consider them genderqueer? If so, no wonder you don't find many compatriots. I think, just like there are a lot of ways to be male or female...or both/neither...there are a lot of ways to mess with that binary, a lot of different ways to value authenticity. Maybe some of them are before you but you're just not seeing them.
I don't like the grading system either, and I don't really know anyone who does (and I know a lot of academics). I only assign number grades because I HAVE to...the university system requires it and truth to tell, if my students didn't have some kind of rating system, they wouldn't do jack shit. The numbers mean GPA which means HOPE scholarship. Vanishingly few of my students ever come and talk to me about their writing in terms other than "How can I make an A?" I just looked at a batch of writing assignments meant to prepare my students to write their first major paper and improve their skills generally; because they didn't have a high numerical value attached, many of them blew the assignments off.
As for the genderqueer stuff...I can't help but wonder if you are judging people too harshly. I consider myself genderqueer in some sense, but I don't think it's *possible* to be "genderfree." As a radical feminist I like your non-gendered word choices but as a writer and former editor they make me twitch a little. Does someone have to ascribe to your philosophy in order for you to consider them genderqueer? If so, no wonder you don't find many compatriots. I think, just like there are a lot of ways to be male or female...or both/neither...there are a lot of ways to mess with that binary, a lot of different ways to value authenticity. Maybe some of them are before you but you're just not seeing them.
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