" On the Outside Looking In"
After reading Brent Staples's essay, " Why Colleges Shower Their Students With "A" I was astonished with the way he felt about colleges. I didn't agree with what he was saying through most of his essay. His topic was too broad and left alot of room for argument. Everything that he was saying didn't apply to all colleges, and there are students out there who work hard for their grades. Staples went on to say, " Addicted to counterfeit excellence, colleges, parents and students are unlikely to give it up. As a consequence, diplomas will become weaker and more ornamental as the years go by."(par.11) He is basically calling my High School diploma that I have recieved fake, and making it appear that I have worked for nothing. All students are not getting free grades, and Brent Staples is saying this happens all over the world.
The parents are giving alot of money, and that has led them to believe that their money can replace bad grades. Staples went on to say, " The evidence suggests that students and parents are demanding--and getting--what they think of as their money's worth."(par.8) This goes on all over, and this is a statement that I agree with. Their are many students who don't put in as much work as others. If you are not in class everyday, why should you recieve an "A" average? If you want to get your money's worth you have to be in class to get your work.
Students are different, and Staples put all of them into one category. Staples said, " Twenty years ago students grumbled, then lived with the grades tehy were given."(par.7) Many students choose to complain, but this statement isn't extinct. Students in colleges and high schools live by this, and work hard for what they want. Staples lead me to believe that he feels that students today are spoiled, and don't work hard for what they want.
Overall, Staples's essay was too broad and he definitely needs to narrow it down. There was room left for argument, and he never specified his intended audience.
11 comments:
I agree, Sherrick, that not all grades and maybe ven the majority of grades given in college are legitimate. However, i believe that the essay is intended to lean strongly toward the negative aspects and not so much toward the positive ones of modern education. In order to prove his point he didn't want to continually lay out disclaimers to his readers and just stick to the point.
I agree with you Sherrick, his arguement was very broad. Some colleges may give students A's but I know at Lander you have to work your butt off and come to class everyday to recieve an A. His arguement works very well if you say high schools give students A's who dont deserve them. My Anatomy class in high school the teacher would give us worksheets to do for the upcoming test along with a sheet of important vocabulary. She would give us 2 weeks to do the 2 to 3 sheets front and back and it was only over 1 chapter. I would finish the sheets after the 1st week and then spend the next week reading my book and studing. A select few did this also. While the other 30 students (my classes were big in high school) goofed off and played on their cellphones and socialized (she would allow this because this was our time to study and what we did with it was our responsibility) then the day before the test everyone was scrambling trying to do the work and when time started running out getting the answers from the few, like me, who actually did the work. Then we would end up making 90's or above and the rest of the 30 students would fail or get pretty close to failing. So she would give the students a 20 point or more curve to make her not look suspicious to the administrators. I did not think that it was fair at all because we wouldn't recieve it because we made the high grades. So back to my point he was taking a small sample and applying it to the whole population which I don't think is accurate.
I disagree with your remark, "If you are not in class everyday, why should you receive an A average?” Just because someone misses class a lot does not necessarily mean that they receive "free" grades. Some students understand certain things better than others students do, and some students may not need to go to class everyday in order to make an A or a B on the tests. Those students could just understand the material better than the other students do, and/or they might just be good test takers. Why should students, who are ahead of the class, be held back at the class's pace?
I agree with you because as you stated alot of students work hard to get the grades that they get.
I also feel that parents do spend alot of money for their child to get a good education to better their lives.
I know for a fact that most teachers are behind their students to make good grades to stay late at school to actually help their students do better at their work.
I agree with you sherrick, but in some ways, the author is right. Yes, i know that some of us have worked hard to keep our grades, but some of us havent. Athletes for example. If a star athlete on the basketball team is expected to play in the championships this week, but his GPA is dropping,do you think that his coach will refuse to "assist" him with his grades? This doesn't refer to everyone, but you have to admit, it's true (in alot of cases)
I agree Sherrick, that not every school in America is going to "shower their students with A's", but I do believe that there are teachers out there in many places all over the world that are too lazy to be a real teacher, and so they decide to just put a grade on the paper without fully looking at the content of the paper. I have always had to work for my grades. However, there are those select teachers that are loazy and do not do their jobs.
I agree, not everyone is given good grades. I know, for myself, that no professor or teacher in high school gave me anything. I earned every grade, whether it was an A or F. I earned every letter marking I've received, giving out A's HA HA, Ive never received one. Guess it skipped me.
I agree with you Sherrick ,but staples is right about the high school diploma. If you think about it you cannot get a very good job with just a high school diploma any more about the best you could get is probly in a resturant business or retail. So it probly will be soon to follw that a college diploma won't be worth as much either and people will have to start going to graduate school just to make it by in life.
I agree with Sherrick as well. Students in college do have to work hard to get the desired grade they want. Nothing in life is handed to you and the same applies with grades. Teachers will do everything in their power to make sure you succeed, its up to the student to take advantage of the teachers knowledge and help.
I agree with you Sherrick, I know for one that every grade I get I've worked hard for. But at the college I attended last year there were plenty of teachers who gave grades depending on if a student came by their office to talk(even if it wasn't about class/homework). It kind of was like having a teacher/student friendship and if you were on their "good" side then you were the student with the "A" and not the grade you should really have.
I agree with you most grades are fare. Every course i have taken has been fare. There is no "give me" grades in the teachers i have had.
Post a Comment