Grades: the candle snuffer of the love of learning

Here is a comment that Josie Holford left on my post Grades: Education's Snake-Oil Currency:

For some of us who care passionately about learning and opportunity for all (and who don't see education as a race to the top for a few) so much of current policy and practice IS a crime scene. 

The extremity of the metaphor matches the strength of feeling when it comes to the crimes of deskilling teachers and depriving children of their birthright as learners. 

Want a more "cheerful" metaphor about the "crime" of grading? 

Grades are the candy floss of education. Appealing to some in the short term, nutritionally worthless and ultimately destructive. 

Like a cheap tin trophy.

The cattle prod for the bully, the carrot for the desperate and a prop for the incompetent. 

A diversion tactic, sidelining learners from what actually matters. 

The candle snuffer of the love of learning.