Money for Grades Anybody?

In Brent Staples editorial “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s,” he discusses the fact that the average college diploma is almost unsatisfactory for today’s society. The reality that the colleges are “faced with demanding consumers and stiff competition,” they now have “simply issued more A’s.”

The actuality that this is occurring in today’s society is an eye opener more than anything. Not only do individuals have to second guess the validity of a person in their profession but they also have to take a step back and look at the education they are or have received. In some cases “departments shower students with A’s to fill poorly attended courses that might otherwise be canceled.” Not only are the grades being handed out but the professors are doing it as a form of job security in that the students will give them a first-rate assessment.

The idea that many of the students are able to “appeal low grades through deans or permanent boards of inquiry” is an upsetting detail as well. Understandably many courses may be harder than others; some may think certain professors hold grudges against them due to opposing beliefs, but they still have to do the work. The problem is the generations that are currently going through college are practically being told that they have to go to college and they have had things handed to them their whole life. Not only are students complaining about the cost of the classes they are attending, they think they deserve a good grade when they do not produce the work.

Another topic that arises is a Duke Professor who proposed changing the way grade point averages are calculated to give harder classes more credit than others was shot down by not only the student government but professors as well. This goes to show that the students do not want to challenge themselves anymore and the professors with “easy” course curriculum don’t want to lose their jobs.

What are your views on this topic and would you rather be handed grades or earn them?

What Would You Do

“On Compassion” by Barbara Lazear Ascher is an essay to show that no one is born compassionate, “it must be learned, and it is learned by having adversity at our windows, coming through the gates of our yards, the walls of our towns, adversity that becomes so familiar that we begin to identify and empathize with it.”

Throughout the essay Ascher uses examples of homeless people that are being ignored by society except for certain individuals. She is prompted to ask “Was it fear or compassion that motivated the gift?” when she sees one woman fumble through her purse at an intersection to give a man a dollar, as well as when a woman brings a homeless man a warm cup of coffee and a bag with some food from her shop.

Ascher also asks herself why a large majority of individuals are ignoring this part of society. Even though they are homeless and may not have a job they are still human beings. Ascher points out that people generally have negative attitudes towards the homeless, but some people in society are doing more than their share to help society.

What are your views on this topic and are you prompted by “fear or compassion?”