PROFESSOR CALLS TO GET RID OF GRADES because they are 'capitalism in action'.

[Professor] Wolff’s main quarrel with grading stems from the fact that he believes it to be a tool of an oppressive capitalist force.

"It chiefly serves employers,” he says, adding that “today’s economic system precludes teachers engaging so carefully, repeatedly, and thoroughly with students. Capitalism’s enterprise organization — a small minority of employers (owners and their top executives) directing and controlling a large majority of employees — is replicated in private and public educational institutions.”

“That organization and its financial constraints combine to preclude the interactions among teachers and students that real education requires,” says Wolff, who believes that grades represent a “power” that a teacher has over a student.

Wolff insists that “meritocracy redirects the blame for capitalism’s failures onto its victims” and that “grading is the method” by which schools perpetuate a meritocratic society.

Gist: The 'professor' fears meritocracy will leave him jobless....