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When grading, it is useful to divide the assignments into two categories: first, those which are free-form and open ended, such as creative projects, reading programs homeschool papers, and presentations; and second, those which test for automaticity of core skills and knowledge such as spelling and vocabulary words, appropriate grammar use, and where or not the student has done reading assignments. The former category should be graded based subjectively upon the student's progress and ability; the latter should be graded in a standard manner, with ‘wrong' and ‘right' answers.

Grades should focus on helping the student realise what his proficiencies are, and what things he may study in order to improve his work. There are five members of the NSW Right in federal cabinet: Tony Burke (home affairs), Chris Bowen (climate change and energy), Jason Clare (education), Ed Husic (industry and science), and Michelle Rowland (communications). Indicating the true purpose of education is not drilling, or teaching a lot of useless facts (which one can find on the Internet anyway), nor submission to established societal values, but leading out that which already is within.

An educator, then, is a person who helps one achieve the fullness of one's potential without trying to impose his own viewpoints. The importance of transferability extends outside the realm of social sciences. In English, a student might learn the functions of different parts of speech; but he will not be able to improve his sentence structure with this knowledge unless he can use it appropriately. Analogously, a student of mathematics may be able to solve simple algebraic problems with fractions, but that does not guarantee his ability to execute more complex operations with dimensional analysis.

Learning about learning has so far been a mind-opening experience. I am studying to become a social sciences teacher, though education is really a social science in itself. Actually, it has such mathematic complexity, scientific precision, reading math and generally eclectic methods that has thus far been an entirely unique major. Of course, the way a subject is taught is dependent on the subject itself. Obviously, mathematics cannot be taught in entirely the same way as anthropology.

The teacher must know their subject well enough to realise the differences between content taught, so that they can best adapt their teaching methods. This kind of education benefits the student in at least two ways. First, he is able to reflect upon course material using personal experience. He is more likely to be interested in what is being taught, because the material is more relevant to him. Secondly, he is able to supplement his extracurricular interests with the knowledge that he learns in class.

By making connections between what he learns in the classroom and outside of it, he has the opportunity not only to build upon his understanding of class material, but also of his own recreations and passions. This should be one of the primary purposes of teaching and learning: to build upon the students' existing experience and curiosity to provide a practically grounded and relevant education.