The Gradeless/Degreeless Syste

A detailed Summary of The Gradeless/Degreeless Syste

In Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Phaedrus thought of a very clever way to make students work for themselves and not just for a good grade. He wanted students to attend college because they were interested in learning and not just because they needed a degree. Phaedrus thought he could do this by eliminating grades and degrees; it would be a grade less/degreeless system. When looking at this idea hypothetically with a hypothetical student, this system seemed to be fabulous, but when Phaedrus actually applied this idea to his classrooms with real students, it didn't turn out how he had hoped.

With the elimination of grades and degrees, Phaedrus believed the hypothetical student would eventually flunk himself out of school and not got back until he was there for the knowledge and not just the grades. He predicted that the student would go to his first few classes out of habit and probably do the assignments in a way he was sort of trained to do them his whole life. Eventually the student would get bored with the class because he wasn't really there for any sort of purpose and would quit going to classes and do the assignments. Then the hypothetical student would eventually take himself out of school.

He would flunk himself out. As Phaedrus saw it, this would be better for everyone. The student wasn't there for any real reason so he didn't deserve to be there anyway. He pointed out how a lot of money had been saved and this hadn't affected anyone but the student. All his life the student had been trained with this slave mentality, Phaedrus called it "carrot-and-whip grading, a mule mentality which said, 'If you don't whip me, I won't work'" (Pirsig 175). This is why the student failed himself out; no one was pushing him to work. The student would go get a job to support himself doing something that he enjoyed. This would satisfy him for a while but eventually he would become less and less satisfied with the same day to day job and would become more interested in something a little more technical or something that required more of an education and he would enroll himself back in school. This may take a few years, but when the hypothetical student would go back to school he would be there as a "grade-motivated person", he'd be a "knowledge-motivated" person (Pirsig 176). The student would no longer be a slacker, he would most likely shape up the teachers that were slacking because he was paying them to be educated and he would want and deserve that education. He would become interested in learning other things than his field of interest like physics and mathematics because he would see that he needed them. This would allow the free student to expand his education as he felt it necessary. He would get the education when he was ready for it. The Universities would generate much better product if they were putting out students who actually wanted to be there and who were actually interested in learning. Phaedrus believed that they way the system is set up now, students are taught just to imitate what their teachers have shown them to do and they never really learn how to create their own true quality. Only he pointed out that in college it is more sophisticated. Students are supposed to imitate their teachers, but yet not make it apparent that that is what they are doing. Phaedrus decided to try this technique in his classrooms with real students. He noticed that the A students had a very hard time with it in the beginning, but they would go ahead and do the work anyway b

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Approximate Word count = 1541
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels