Following is an essay written by Kurt Wiesenfeld a Professor at Georgia Tech in Atlanta Georgia. The essay was originally published in the "My Turn" section of the June 17th Newsweek.
It was a rookie error. After 10 years I should have known better, but
I went to my office the day after final grades were posted. There was a
tentative knock on the door "Professor Wiesenfeld? I took your Physics
2121 class? I flunked it? I wonder if there's anything I can do to
improve my grade?" I thought: "Why are you asking me? Isn't it too late
to worry about it? Do you dislike making declarative statements?"
After the student gave his tale of woe and left, the phone rang.
"I got a D in your class. Is there any way you can change it to
'Incomplete'?" Then the e-mail assault began: "I'm shy about coming to
talk to you, but I'm not shy about asking for a better grade. Anyway, it's
worth a try." The next day I had three phone messages from students
asking me to call them. I didn't.
Time was, when you received a grade, that was it. You might groan and
moan, but you accepted it as the outcome of your efforts or lack thereof
(and, yes, sometimes a tough grader). In the last few years, however, some
students have developed a disgruntled consumer approach. If they don't like
their grade, they go to the "return" counter to trade it in for something
better.
What alarms me is their indifference toward grades as an indication of
personal effort and performance. Many, when pressed about why they think
they deserve a better grade, admit they don't deserve one but would like
one anyway. Having been raised on gold stars for effort and smiley faces
for self-esteem, they've learned that they can get by without hard work and
real talent if they can talk the professor into giving them a break. This
attitude is beyond cynicism. There's a weird innocence to the assumption
that one expects (even deserves) a better grade simply by begging for it.
With that outlook, I guess I shouldn't be as flabbergasted as I was that 12
students asked me to change their grades after final grades were posted.
That's 10 percent of my class who let three months of midterms,
quizzes and lab reports slide until long past remedy. My graduate student
calls it hyperrational thinking: if effort and intelligence don't matter,
why should deadlines? What matters is getting a better grade through an
unearned bonus, the academic equivalent of a freebie T shirt or toaster
giveaway. Rewards are disconnected from the quality of one's work. An act
and its consequences are unrelated, random events.
Their arguments for wheedling better grades often ignore academic
performance. Perhaps they feel it's not relevant."If my grade isn't raised
to a D I'll lose my scholarship." "if you don't give me a C, I'll flunk
out." One sincerely overwrought student pleaded, "If I don't pass my life
is over." This is tough stuff to deal with. Apparently, I'm responsible for
someone's losing a scholarship, flunking out or deciding whether life has
meaning. Perhaps these students see me as a commodities broker with
something they want--a grade. Though intrinsically worthless, grades, if
properly manipulated, can be traded for what has value: a degree, which
means a job, which means money. The one thing college actually offers--a
chance to learn--is considered irrelevant, even less than worthless,
because of the long hours and hard work required.
In a society saturated with surface values, love of knowledge for its
own sake does sound eccentric. The benefits of fame and wealth are more
obvious. So is it right to blame students for reflecting the superficial
values saturating our society?
Yes, of course it's right. These guys had better take themselves
seriously now, because our country will be forced to take them seriously
later, when the stakes are much higher. They must recognize that their
attitude is not only self-destructive but socially destructive. The
erosion of quality control--giving appropriate grades for actual
accomplishments--is a major concern in my department. One colleague
noted that a physics major could obtain a degree without ever answering
a written exam question completely. How? By pulling in enough partial
credit and extra credit And by getting breaks on grades.
But what happens once she or he graduates and gets a job? That's when
the misfortunes of eroding academic standards multiply. We lament that
school children get "kicked upstairs" until they graduate from high school
despite being illiterate and mathematically inept, but we seem unconcerned
with college graduates whose less blatant deficiencies are far more
harmful if their accreditation exceeds their qualifications.
Most of my students are science and engineering majors. If they're
good at getting partial credit but not at getting the answer right, then
the new bridge breaks or the new drug doesn't work. One finds examples here
in Atlanta. Last year a light tower in the Olympic Stadium collapsed,
killing a worker. It collapsed because an engineer miscalculated how much
weight it could hold. A new 12 story dormitory could develop dangerous
cracks due to a foundation that's uneven by more than six inches. The error
resulted from incorrect data being fed into a computer. I drive past that
dorm daily on my way to work, wondering if a foundation crushed under
kilotons of weight is repairable or if this structure will have to be
demolished. Two 10,000 pound steel beams at the new natatorium collapsed
in March, crashing into the student athletic complex. (Should we give
partial credit since no one was hurt?) Those are real world consequences
of errors and lack of expertise.
But the lesson is lost on the grade-grousing 10 percent. Say that you
won't (not can't, but won't) change the grade they deserve to what they
want, and they are frequently bewildered or angry. They don't think it's
fair that they're judged according to their performance, not their desires
or "potential." They don't think it's fair that they should jeopardize
their scholarships or be in danger of flunking out simply because they
could not or did not do their work. But it's more than fair; it's
necessary to help preserve a minimum standard of quality that our society
needs to maintain safety and integrity. I don't know if the l3th-hour
students will learn that lesson, but I've learned mine. From now on, after
final grades are posted, I'll lie low until the next quarter starts.
WIESENFELD, a physicist, teaches at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.