Response

Emma writes:
"Today the climate for learning in most colleges and schools is one of competition. Students compete for grades, withhold information from one another to "get ahead," to maintain their competitive advantage, and on many campuses there is widespread cheating. But our most consequential human problems will be resolved not through competition, but collaboration." How would you feel if U of I suddenly took away individual grades and instead replaced the grading system as a group grading system, so it would force everyone to work together and the group as a whole would get the same grade?

I think that all humans are able to collaborate peacefully and for a greater output. However, our historical collaboration has been in a tribal, military, and survival sense. When colleges were invented (to essentially create a steady stream of educated workers), the collaboration was divided into individual achievements. Even when we are in grade school, not too many group projects are instilled. In my high school, only the honors courses would do group projects (maybe because we were all an even playing field?). I think that if group projects were introduced into the U of I grading system, it should only be a portion of the overall grade because we have all been accepted into U of I b/c of our individual success.