Well put! I could not agree more. I am finishing my 34th year of teaching and if I could do away with grades altogether, I would. As it is, schools teach obedience and how to tolerate boredom, and oftentimes not much else. When I was in school, only people who were good at art took an art class because we non-artists were afraid of getting a bad grade. It seemed like the people who SHOULD take art were convinced NOT to.