Alternative Education

These past few weeks in Honors orientation, we have been learning about education and discussing some issues in education that are flawed. For this assignment, we were asked to look at some alternative education system employed by many colleges around the US. One such college is Evergreen State University. At Evergreen, they do not measure a students learning by grades; however, they are evaluated by professors and themselves through detailed personal narratives. Their websites states that this has been widely accepted by employers because it is more detailed and personal than letter grades. 

Comparing this school to JBU, there are many differences. The main one, of course, is JBU has grades. At JBU, many students strive to maintain a certain GPA, whether it is for honors, scholarships, or just a personal goal. I believe this is good because it gives students something for which to strive; however, they can be a downfall where a student is focused just on the letter grade that they overlook actually learning and retaining the material. In academics I also see how the two colleges are alike. Like JBU’s professors, Evergreen’s professors seem that they are truly there to teach the students, and they want them to succeed. 

I personally believe I would do well in the type of learning at Evergreen. One point they made was that their classes were actually programs. They studied a variety of subjects in one class, with the help of labs and field trips. The reason I think I would excel in this type of education is I like to see how different subjects fit together. For example, my high school humanities class combined history, literature, geography, poetry, and music all into one class. With this I was able to learn how they all connected and fed off of each other. This type of learning makes sense to me and I enjoy learning this way.