Nick Robers, Cadan Ziemba, Lila Warner, Sarah Bacon, Vincent Maronski, Grayson Clark
Octavia Butler’s “Bloodchild” illuminates some of the tensions in what Jesse Stommel terms “ungrading”. In summary, the short story “Bloodchild” is about two different species, the Tlic and the Terrans. The Tlic’s homeland is the preserve, which is where they all live. The Terrans got kicked out of their homeworld and ended up at the preserve as invaders. They have come a long way from being enemies with each other, but there are still issues with their relationship. The Tlic and Terrans have made agreements on how to live with each other in peace. However, the Tlic have placed restrictions on the Terrans, which has caused the Tlic to have more power. It says in the story, “Firearms were illegal in the preserve” (Butler 12). This is just one example of the Terrans having to give up some of their freedoms with no way of protecting themselves. Consequently, the Terrans often feel intimidated by the Tlics. This may be because Tlics and Terrans have different roles in society, this being that the Tlics have more power over the Terrans. This could lead to unease between the two and create alarm for the Terrans. Butler writes on page 5, that Gan says “It was a little frightening to know that only she stood between us and the desperation that could so easily swallow us.” This helps portray the type of intimidation and fear that the Tlic struck into the Terrans even when they are protected on the preserve. The Terrans understand that even though they have some lines of protection, at the end of the day the Tlic still reigns over them. This gives us a glimpse into a setting without clear and open communication. The Tlic have established rules, but keep many aspects of their needs from Terrans private, such as their parasite birthing process. This leads to discomfort and unrest from characters like Gan’s brother and eventually Gan, as we see later in the story.
Despite its location on an alien world, “Bloodchild” has much in common with day-to-day life. The key that ties these two different worlds together is the flawed systems of hierarchy and its many nuances. In “Bloodchild”, the system in place forces Terrans to host Tlic young until they can live independently. In our own world, the conventional system of grading offers little room for individual accommodation or student input. While each of these systems is flawed, they manage to persist in day-to-day life as they are seen as the norm in their respective societies. There are only a few who are trying to upend these systems. “Bloodchild” shows its main character, Gan, making the case for Terrans being permitted to view Tlic’s “births” so they can see when things go right. This is much like the teachers experimenting with a new line of ungraded communication with their students. In our world, there are a handful of teachers and professors who are adopting an “ungrading” system that gives more freedom to individual students. But as a traditional way of teaching it is very similar to the society of the Tlic and Terrans in that the teacher almost always has power over the student.
According to Stommel, conventional grading is not a good marker of learning for students. He believes that conventional grading can cause unfairness, poor feedback, and competitiveness instead of collaboration. For example, when students become focused on achieving better grades than their classmates, they tend to become less motivated to learn for their own benefit, but rather to “beat” their classmates. This kind of situation can often be highlighted when a teacher hands back a graded assignment resulting in a whisper around the room of everyone asking each other what they got. We can see what happens when you eliminate these sorts of situations, specifically when Stommel discusses the effects of conventional grading on students during the pandemic. Rather than accurately measuring how much a student has learned, the conventional grading system measures how well students switched to online classes and were able to perform in a crisis. On the other hand, the ungrading system is focused more on reflection and engagement with the material in the course. Stommel states “ungrading starts with teachers just talking to students about grades. Demystifying grades (and the culture around them) gives students a sense of ownership over their own education”. Part of the process is having self-assessments throughout the course to get feedback on their work and not focus on a specific number of grades. This can take the stress off of students that the conventional grading system causes. They know what they are expected to do and can drive their own learning.
While often effective in providing a more accurate grade and further engaging students in the material, the ungrading system indeed provides some serious risks, mostly due to the potential of individuals acting in bad faith. This could play out from the student’s perspective, thinking they can get by with a good grade without making the most of their learning. An example of this is a student not putting their all towards their learning in a class they know they will be able to cheat their way through. Instead of putting in the effort to learn the material the student chooses to cheat in order to secure a good grade. It can also, however, come from the teacher’s perspective as well, if they are not putting the effort into the class that is needed. An example of a teacher using this system to get through easier is not wanting to read reflections and give in-depth feedback to their students. When a teacher does this they are committing an act of bad faith as their students are supposed to have trust in their teacher to provide them with the resources to achieve in class. The conventional system can be less time-consuming for teachers to get their grading done. For this way of grading to be productive it is extra important for the teacher to put in a lot of work into maintaining a line of communication that might be difficult with a larger class size, since the feedback in ungrading is more complex. If there is not clear communication using the ungrading system, there may present some of the problems we saw in “Bloodchild” (Gan with birth), since there is no feedback from the grades throughout. Gan voices his opinion about how he feels disconnected from the process and completely in the dark. In a conversation with T’Gatoi about the uncomfortable subject of Tlic birth, he says, “Shown. Shown when we’re young kids, and shown more than once. T’Gatoi, no Terran ever sees a birth that goes right. All we see is N’Tlic—pain and terror and maybe death.” It is clear that Gan feels that with an open line of communication, he would be better prepared and invested in the task at hand. This relates to the ungrading process as well, since when students are presented with a final grade on an assignment without any discussion with the teacher throughout, they may feel blindsided and begin to panic. It is important that they are very clear on where they stand so far, and what is still to be expected out of them.
With that being said, the potential for ungrading to transform a student’s learning is too much to dismiss. The rewards for teachers are that they will have students who feel more connected with their work, with less of a need to cheat, and they also may feel more connected to their students. In a conventional grading system, students may feel pressure to get a certain grade even if it means cheating. After ungrading has been applied, students would be less likely to cheat as they can explain their situation to the professor and achieve a grade that is more representative of their overall effort. For students, they can receive more feedback about their work, they have less pressure about their grades, and they can feel more engaged with their studies.Teachers may use the conventional grading system as an excuse to check out and not properly engage with their students. For subjects with a deal of interpretation to them, such as the arts, it could be easy to grade without much thought and only delve into the surface levels of what their students are trying to accomplish. In classes that are more objective, such as math or sciences, it would be easy enough to just base the entire grade around a small number of multiple-choice exams, of which there are now many ways of auto-grading. This parallels the dangers of the conventional system presented in “Bloodchild,” by way of Gan’s brother, Qui. Qui was the unfortunate witness of a birthing gone wrong, one in which the Terran died. As a result of this, he grew to resent all T’lic (Butler, 18-21). Qui would likely not be so hateful if he had people to talk to about his trauma or had been shown success stories of a birth gone right. This is quite similar to the students who would’ve benefited from the increased communication granted by ungrading.
One may ask- why does this matter? We think all teachers and students should care about their learning system. With the new ungrading learning system students will feel less pressure on getting answers wrong on tests and assignments. They will worry less about the grade and focus on learning the material. We think that this type of learning will also help students to not be afraid to ask questions and be able to freely share what they are thinking. We feel as though when students are able to express what they are really thinking about, it can create a better learning environment. Relating back to the short story “Bloodchild” that we have read all semester, it shows the Terrans and Tlic also having communication issues. The Terrans are afraid to openly express how they are feeling, in fear that the Tlic may find them disobedient or unkind. We see this specifically with Gan’s mother, who lies and says how she is honored that T’Gatoi has chosen their family, when in reality, she is scared to say anything other than kind words about T’Gatoi. If people can not have clear communication, ideas and feelings can be taken the wrong way. In a classroom, if a teacher does not properly share their expectations with students in regards to their grading system, they may cause confusion or hurt feelings, if a student feels they are being graded unfairly. Remaining on the topic of ungrading, we talked about how it translates more to students’ futures and real-world jobs. It is important to be able to ask questions comfortably with your boss and the people you work with. Another benefit to ungrading is that it teaches students to slow down and get their work done thoroughly, which is important when you have a job. The traditional grading system can ultimately teach students bad habits when it comes to rushing their work, and just trying to get their work done because they are told to. Along with ungrading, students will be less stressed if they don’t have to worry about perfect tests and quiz scores. Without the stress, the students will be able to focus more on the course and engage in their learning. All students and teachers should want to learn and teach effectively, so they should have a goal to achieve this however it is possible.
