The only thing I learned from poor grades in high school was that math wasn't for me. I wonder for how many of us this is true of a variety of subjects, only to discover later that it was a lie told to us by a the narrow criteria & rigid timeline of the gradebook?

I think about this especially as a history teacher, & I wonder the more that we atomize the social sciences into gradeable skills & standards, the more we risk another generation identifying as "not a history person"? Is that something we can afford?

Of all the subjects where gradeless learning seems most appropriate, my goodness, turn social studies into a laboratory and get these kids understanding the world! Not accumulating points & accepting the labels the gradebook would have them believe about themselves.