50 Krause Told Me Go 'Head Switch The Style Up

As a high school freshman, I’m should be used to the way I’m graded by now. I don’t have a problem with it; it’s simple and doesn’t have many flaws, if any. Well I came across a blog by Karl Fisch on his blog, The Fischbowl, which gave a quick intro then three links to a three part blog on a teacher at my school’s blog. His name is Jeff Krause, who is in the English department on Arapahoe High School. The three-part blog told an idea Mr. Krause had about how to make his American Literature class more interesting. In part 1, he started with “As with all crazy ideas, it occurred at approximately 3 a.m. – the time when you can convince yourself that just about anything will work.” Well that had me hooked to read these blogs. This crazy idea was, well, crazy to say the least but I was intrigued. He walked into the first day of class of American Literature and told them “I have this idea that’s true madness and it scares me to death: I’ve decided to give you an A for the semester.” As a student myself, if I was told this by any of my teachers I would be surprised, pleasantly obviously, but I would know there would be a catch. He goes on to explain himself. He will give them an A if at the end of the semester, the students can do a final project that shows all there learning into one creative project, no matter what. This means that some students might not do any homework all year long, but if they can prove they understand everything at the end with a final project, they will still earn an A. Or if someone does all the work during the semester but their project doesn’t satisfy the teacher’s expectations, they would still earn an A.
After that point in the blog, it just told about the student’s reactions, early ideas and concerns. My thoughts on this type of curriculum had me intrigued right away. My mind put myself in the place of one of his students, would I do the HW all year and slack at the end, would I not do any work all year but make sure to pay attention so I could do a great project, or would I do the homework and the project just to make sure I would get an A. The more I thought about it the more I wasn’t sure. At first I was thinking I would only do the project, but would I understand all the learning without having to study at home? Then I switched, if I were in the class I would do the homework but not the project, like a normal class really. But then what would be the point in being in a different class if I didn’t do the difference? I would get bored of the class like I would with a normal class. And the option to do both represents the problem of the other options as well. After more in depth thought, I realized I would rather not be bored in a normal class, I would not do much of the homework (I would do some if I was confused) and I would spend the majority of the semester perfecting a project idea. Whether it was a short story that represented the learning, a poster, a drawing, a song (rap, rock, disco, it doesn’t matter) or something even more different. Seems like a fun class to me.


p.s. the title is a reference to a Kanye West song, if you reader's didnt understand