Side effects

(Baonghean) - Starting from October 15th, primary schools nationwide began using comments instead of grades. The underlying intention of the Education sector is to help students escape the burden of grades and achievements, and to force teachers to pay closer attention to their students.

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That was truly a great idea from the department. But after only half a month of implementation, the good idea began to give rise to unintended consequences and risked turning into something undesirable. After several days of diligently reading papers and writing comments until their eyes were blurry, their hands numb, and their bodies ached, the "kind mothers" realized that compared to grading, writing comments was far more time-consuming and laborious. Half a month ago, grading was just a matter of one or two numbers, a quick swipe. Now, they have to write comments, the shortest of which are at least a few words long, several times longer than before. Not to mention, grading can be done quickly with a quick glance and an estimated score. But comments require careful reading before any judgment can be made. If it's correct, that's fine; if it's wrong, it's very troublesome.

So, an idea (or perhaps a terrible idea) came up: hiring someone to engrave generic, general comments like "I commend you," "You need to try harder," etc., onto wood—anything that could be used like a stamp. After reading the paper, they'd press the stamp with a "clunk," just like a clerk stamping an official document—and that was it. It seemed faster and easier than grading. The problem was, each student had their own unique style, and their work varied in terms of rightness, wrongness, quality, and flaws. Their strengths and weaknesses were also different. How could they possibly summarize everything in a few dry, wooden comments? How could they accurately assess each student's conduct, academic ability, strengths, and weaknesses? That wouldn't help them at all. Not to mention, the uniformly carved letters looked cold and emotionless! Thus, what was initially good was quickly transformed into something bad. The new approach has caused negative consequences beyond the subjective intentions of the education sector. It's similar to the effects of using medication.

Taking antibiotics can cure illnesses, but it can also cause fatigue, weaken health and mental well-being, and sometimes even lead to other health problems, such as allergies. These are called side effects. Preventing one disease might lead to another. Avoiding the burden of grades and scores by forcing teachers to write comments leads to superficiality, insensitivity, and a lack of empathy for students due to these "wooden" comments. Upon closer examination, it seems that side effects exist in almost every field and every job... Selecting highly trained individuals with the highest possible qualifications to work in the public sector, aiming to improve efficiency, has led to an unhealthy pursuit of degrees through practices like buying grades, buying diplomas, and using fake degrees... Regulations on retirement age and organizational structure have given rise to the practice of manipulating personal records. Strict bans on overloaded vehicles to protect roads have led to bribery at weigh stations to get through without consequences...

That's just how life is. Benefits and drawbacks, good and bad, positive and negative, always go hand in hand. And sometimes weeds overwhelm even the fragrant flowers and sweet fruits. Side effects can be harmful and even negate the main effect. Therefore, people often remind each other to think very carefully before acting to avoid unwanted side effects. That's why there's a folk saying: "When throwing a mouse, don't break the precious vase." Everything must be carefully considered, planned meticulously, and acted quickly and accurately. Otherwise, if you throw the wrong "mouse," the main goal won't be achieved, and you'll cause serious damage by "breaking the precious vase." But conversely, you shouldn't be so afraid of "breaking the vase" that you don't dare "throw the mouse," allowing negativity to run rampant. Therefore, strong measures are needed to effectively counteract newly arising side effects. Returning to the issue of teachers using wooden stamps instead of handwritten comments, should the education sector find a solution to thoroughly address and rectify this, or should it simply accept it as a side effect of the new approach? Just like in everyday life, sometimes people have to accept... side effects?!

Buddha Mountain