Grading

I struggle with understanding how Christian educators can offer honest, helpful evalution of student work without capitulating to the mindless numbers and letters of modern academia. We are so in love with the number grades that for as meaningless as they are, they are motivators. It's like our stats, our batting average, and slugging percentage. I grant that number grades can reflect accurately in certain areas, but they run the risk of degrading the work of my students. The value of an essay on 'what it means to be a man' cannot be reduced to a number. And because most work cannot be reduced to a number, when it is, are we being as honest as we can be? At the same time, by refusing to number a student's work, I often find that my evaluations are less effective because writing "this is very poor work" for some reason doesn't get as much of a response as '55%'. How does a teacher remain helpful (ie. truly motivating) and honest in evalutation? And how can a teacher be a servant to students and families (ie. useful transcripts for college) and at the same time encourage growth and development that does not pay homage to the gods of the number? In many ways I prefer greater honesty and hope motivation will grow over time.