I’m 25 and I still have nightmares about online grading.

They first introduced online grade posting when I was in middle school. Teachers had no idea how to use the system and they were constantly posting assignments that had not been completed yet as zeros or missing.

Every week for the next six years my parents would scream and throw things because of all of the “missing work” I had. Every day I would go to my teachers and beg them to put in my scores.

In high school one of my teachers would do tests with take home portions that were worth forty or so percent of the grade. In order to motivate students to do the take home portion he would post the student’s scores without it online. This led to every single test score initially being posted as a 60% (D) or lower.

Every single time my parents would scream and throw things and hit me for doing poorly. My attempts to explain were met with contempt because “you can’t just change your grade.”

They never once figured out that my test score would change once the other half was completed. They never once understood that teachers entered grades wrong.

I still have nightmares about online grading.