Surprise, surprise - James is having a hard time studying for these exams. I hate studying. I really dislike the way that classes are taught and here's why. Our educational system is built to reward small impulses of work. What I mean is that tests measure a student's performance on one day; papers measure how well a student can prepare less than a day's work; cold calls measures a student's ability to scan the text before class. How can educators figure out a way to constantly assess a student's true knowledge and understanding? I don't have an answer to that.

I know that some may say that rewarding knowledge will then disenfranchise those that aren't as "smart" as another. I dissagree. I'm not a smart person in so much as that I can't just walk into tests and beat them. I have struggled and toiled for every grade that I've received ever since middle school. There has never been a subject that I could simply do well in without a lot of work. This tells me that someone can build knoweldge through hard work.

If we reward knowledge, as a society, then we maintain the balance of rewards as they stand today: some people would still be able to get by with less work than others. However, the shift would change society in a positive way. By rewarding knowledge, our culture would have the opportunity to have a larger mean knowledge compared to today. The benfits of this are far reaching and go well beyond my ability to ponder amid exams. But think, what would our world be like if we cared more about knowledge than grades? Or if grades measured knowledge and not temporary recall.

All this was a bit of procrastination on my part but I think it has value. What do you think? Do you think that our system and society would be better served if knowledge were rewarded rather than tests etc?