A pass/fail option is available to encourage juniors and seniors to take elective courses which might be challenging and may affect grade point average due to grade weight.
I understand that the probable intention behind this policy is to get juniors and seniors to take honors or advanced placement classes instead of perceived "easier" classes just to pad their GPAs. But just because I understand why this policy exists doesn't mean it should exist.
What are we really valuing/protecting here--a number or their learning? The fact that this policy even takes up space in a curriculum guide means that we know that kids game our system, that some of them have become just as number-obsessed as politicians are with standardized test scores, carefully plotting out their coursework to achieve a number, a high score in the game, not an education.
What really rankles me the most is that a GPA, in and of itself, is pretty much meaningless as far as indicating what a student actually knows. So what if a student is the valedictorian if most of those As she earned are the result of effort, keeping an orderly binder, and being able to remember the most memorized stuff on test days?
Why do we let a number, the sole purpose of which is simply to rank and sort kids into "best," "better," "average," and "you suck" piles rather than measure understanding, have so much power over us, our policies, and our students?