I'm thinking about grades today; that's because where we are; it is Spring Break, and the quarter ended last week. I have until Monday at 11:30 am to get grades for 445 elementary students on the computer, so that grade cards can be printed off. And, I should mention, that I grade my students in four areas: Participation, Behavior, Skill and Knowledge. I also give them a letter grade for effort. So, you can see that they are heavy on my mind.
I'm rather conflicted about grades, really. I grew up in a home where they were important, and I always tried to get good grades. But grades don't always tell the whole story; for example, Elvis Presley received a C in his eighth grade music class! I also have a friend who plays guitar incredibly well and writes his own songs--and he failed music in elementary school. While I think we do a much better job now of assessing where students are, it is very hard to communicate all the complexity of learning and achievement that happens in the classroom. That's why I dislike intensely standardized tests and high-stakes testing.
This is not to say that I don't have high expectations for students or that I think there should be no standards. I think excellence is sorely needed in our current culture, but I also think we all get there in different ways. It's a combination of hard work, motivation, and finding your strengths. What I want to avoid is telling any student that they are a failure; and I work very hard to find a way for them to succeed.
I think many people believe that God grades "on a curve," that He weighs our good and our bad and that if they both equal out, that we are going to pass His class. That, however, is not God's standard--he gives all sin a big, fat "F," because His standard is holiness. His standard is Himself. There is no difference between a white lie and murder to Him--they all are sin and miss the standard. We have no hope of passing His test on our own; that's why we need Jesus. After we accept what Jesus has done, God gives us a passing grade--not because of what we have done, but because Jesus took the excruciating final exam for all of us. His whole life was preparation for it; and he passed the test with flying colors. Remember that Jesus asked if he could substitute his assignment for something else in the Garden of Gethsemane; he knew just how excruciating it would be, and, in his humanity, he wanted to have another assignment. But, He accepted God's assignment for Him, and now we have the opportunity to enroll in the curriculum of Heaven.
While God did not make us take the ultimate test for our sin, once we enroll in his class, he does give pop quizzes on a regular basis. They are called trials. Sometimes they are trivial things, like having to wait in line, and sometimes they are huge, ugly things, like cancer. But the Bible says they are for our good. From a teacher's point of view, assessments in class are designed for the purpose of seeing if the instruction was effective; I tell my students that a test is a way for me to see if I have been doing my job correctly, and if they have been doing their job correctly. God gives us tests in a similar manner--he wants to know if we have passed his curriculum found in Galations 5: goodness, faithfulness, kindness, meekness, patience, love and all the rest. And he is so patient: He will give the same test multiple times until we pass it. We don't get the opportunity to skip one, because each test is designed to make us more like Him. At the end of our test, we only receive a pass or fail grade. This is true at the end of life as well; the test of our life won't be how much money we made, what kind of house we lived in, or what kind of car we drove (or if we wrote a blog!). The final exam will be whether or not we accepted Jesus, and what we did for eternal causes.
Take it from one who has passed some tests, is still cramming for others and has had many re-takes; God enrolls us in his classroom for our best, and wants more than anything for us to pass. So, if you have to re-take a test, don't worry. It just means that your Teacher wants you to graduate to Glory.
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