"Do they proficiently understand the topic?" Should be met with a trinary answer: YES, NO, WITHDRAW. We should not encourage stack ranking (or a curve) as a wa

"Do they proficiently understand the topic?" Should be met with a trinary answer: YES, NO, WITHDRAW. We should not encourage stack ranking (or a curve) as a way to stratify students because they joined the class with too many smarter people. Go read up about stack ranking, and why it's a horrific practice. In a "grade on a curve" situation, it benefits you to drop the class if there's too many people you think smarter or more experienced than you. And it benefits you if you're smarter than them. And, thats a REALLY UGLY way to approach education.