Open Letter to My Students on Grading

Just sent this message to my students via a Schoology  update the night before quarter 3 grades come out. I am not normally this agro about assessment, but my fingers just couldn't stop writing. I thought I would share:  FULL DISCOLSURE: While I understand the importance of grades in applying to college, and with your parents, I fully believe that grades are the enemy of true engagement with beautiful phenomena such as Chemistry. I L O V E my "job" and find awarding one of basically three letters (A,B or C) to you, you amazing, diverse, beautiful, people, who deserve paragraphs and paragraphs devoted to your names, is extremely counterintuitive and offensive. You are more than an "A" or a "B" and if there is one thing I have learned on my quest to live a life where I L O V E my vocation, it is that we all carry genius with us...and we are all on a journey to find that genius...where it hides, and what feeds it.  I feel grading you is plain offensive. At least the way we do it...I have done it. Perhaps that means I have yet to figure out a way to make it meaningful...and I'm on the that journey. But, here we are, and we have to do it...and maybe thats why I try to put so much into each class...to fight the system, and make you forget, maybe for a split second, that an institution is awarding a letter to your name...to describe the beauty of you. Ok, done ranting. #teammusallam