For Whom the Bell (Curve) Tolls: A to F, Trade Your Grade Based on the Net Present Value of Friendships with Financial Incentives

Abstract

We discuss a possible solution to an unintended consequence of having grades, certificates, rankings and other diversions in the act of transferring knowledge; and zoom in specifically to the topic of having grades, on a curve. We conduct a thought experiment, taking a chapter (and some more?) from the financial markets, (where we trade pollution and what not?), to create a marketplace, where we can trade our grade, similar in structure to the interest rate swap. We connect this to broader problems that are creeping up, unintentionally, due to artificial labels we are attaching, to ourselves. The policy and philosophical implications of our arguments are to suggest that all trophies that we collect (including certificates, grades, medals etc.) should be viewed as personal equity or private equity (borrowing another widely used term in finance) and we should not use them to determine the outcomes in any selection criteria except have a cutoff point: either for jobs, higher studies, or, financial scholarships, other than for entertainment or spectator sports. We suggest alternate methods for grading and performance assessment and put forth tests for teaching and learning similar to the Turing Test for intelligence.