No Matter What the Culture, It is All About the Learning

No matter what the culture, no matter who the students, school should be about learning for learning's sake and not about the grade. The unintended consequence of using grades as an accountability factor is it becomes all about the grades and students are willing to sacrifice learning to get a higher one. When I began teaching Chinese students online, a group traditionally very grade oriented, I decided to not use grades. Instead I would make it just about the learning and see if that would be enough to motivate students. We would learn for learning sake. Four years later my courses are highly requested and I am teaching nearly every day of the week. Students and parents both seem very satisfied with the results. And it didn't take grades to get us there.