I've always found grading to be the most difficult part of teaching, but I've just read something to help justify my opinion. Josh Brake in his The Absent-Minded Professor blog wrote, "My work at school was serving two masters: grades and learning. These masters, I learned, are often at odds with each other and cannot be simultaneously satisfied. I still loved learning, but the pressure to perform overshadowed it. I was good at the game, but the game wasn't good for me." Josh explains how his home education experience is reshaping his practice as a professor. Now I have something more than lazy, procrastination or an unwillingness to offend students, to explain why and how grading needs to be reconsidered if learning is our goal. His proposals aren't easier than A, B, C,... for me, but learning for an old teacher is also a good goal.
