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So I was in language courses in Cairo for a while. I was the only language major; all the other students were students from my university in a specialized dipl

by 616c 12y ago

So I was in language courses in Cairo for a while. I was the only language major; all the other students were students from my university in a specialized diplomacy and government service track. Unlike me, they had to pass language proficiency exams, in a language of their choosing, or they did not graduate until they did. So, I had a great teacher. He did not care about grades at all. He would give bad grades, and when kids would complain give them good ones if they wanted to retest. He would play games with students regarding this. Now the students who wanted good marks to count towards proficiency were really pissed. He put it quite simply: "I'll give you all the A's you want; but when you go back you will still not speak the language. I do not really care and that is not the focus of my classes. I am here to teach and discuss the language and material with you. That is what interests me." I was one of the few that enjoyed that course, and I was admittedly the best student. I continued to be a strong student in all courses, even those I failed (like economics and computer science) because I was far more interested in material than grades. In the end, I graduated with a high GPA. I see this as a cautionary tale. Now if only I could finally learn C and submit kernel patches like I promised myself in college. But such is life.

protonfish 12y ago
I graded like this when I taught community college and most students hated it. What surprised me is that it was not enough for a student to get an "A" - they wanted better grades than the other students, like it was a competition.
- watwut 12y ago
  While the relative grade does not matter in some majors, it may matter in others. They can influence internships or scholarship accessible to you. It matters a lot when student wants to study medicine. Law firms look at grades when selecting graduates. If you want to go to grad school, your grades matter a lot too. So, in a sense, grades are real competition.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  Because it always is. First there are parents, who want their kids to be above average / top of the class. Kids mindsets then turns to competition, as students themselves start to evaluate each other by their grades. And somewhere in the middle of this the system starts throwing in various scholarships and other perks for a fixed number of best students. No wonder people treat it like competition, because it is one.
- 616c 12y ago
  Because kids are sad sad sad. Haha. I also work in an educational institution doing IT. This, as you get from my anecdote above, was not my educational background. It is funny people laugh when they hear me bust out into Arabic in front of them. I told them I am a language major by trade, and did IT in college to make money. Many people congratulate on mastering these "magical bodies of knowledge that are witchcraft, because surely I (the person I am helping) could never get it." If you want scary, these are other people married to Arab men and women, as am I. Decades of exposure mean nothing. Now why is that? Grades breed mediocrity. Good students stroke their ego, and most students give up when they cannot compete with good students. So we encourage people to believe "I am a magician that speaks computer" and "Arabic is impossible" (if you beleive that, try teaching and explaining inconsistent English grammar; Arabic has encoded in the morphology a lot of syntax that would scare you into seeing what is like a human programming language) and accept mediocrity because evaluation and rank is more important than effort. I see it so often, even from students, I mess with them when they come to my office. I never bitched to change my grades. Why? I was busy reading. Who cares! Please keep being that professor, I hope you save some of them. What is the most cautionary part of that tale is the people in my story all end working for government, some as counter-terrorism and intel guys. They cannot string a sentence together in Arabic, despite the A, and dictate USG policy "on dem terrorist A-rabs" so this culture will get us a real far.

by 616c 12y ago

protonfish 12y ago

I graded like this when I taught community college and most students hated it. What surprised me is that it was not enough for a student to get an "A" - they wanted better grades than the other students, like it was a competition.

watwut 12y ago
While the relative grade does not matter in some majors, it may matter in others. They can influence internships or scholarship accessible to you. It matters a lot when student wants to study medicine. Law firms look at grades when selecting graduates. If you want to go to grad school, your grades matter a lot too. So, in a sense, grades are real competition.
TeMPOraL 12y ago
Because it always is. First there are parents, who want their kids to be above average / top of the class. Kids mindsets then turns to competition, as students themselves start to evaluate each other by their grades. And somewhere in the middle of this the system starts throwing in various scholarships and other perks for a fixed number of best students. No wonder people treat it like competition, because it is one.
616c 12y ago
Because kids are sad sad sad. Haha. I also work in an educational institution doing IT. This, as you get from my anecdote above, was not my educational background. It is funny people laugh when they hear me bust out into Arabic in front of them. I told them I am a language major by trade, and did IT in college to make money. Many people congratulate on mastering these "magical bodies of knowledge that are witchcraft, because surely I (the person I am helping) could never get it." If you want scary, these are other people married to Arab men and women, as am I. Decades of exposure mean nothing. Now why is that? Grades breed mediocrity. Good students stroke their ego, and most students give up when they cannot compete with good students. So we encourage people to believe "I am a magician that speaks computer" and "Arabic is impossible" (if you beleive that, try teaching and explaining inconsistent English grammar; Arabic has encoded in the morphology a lot of syntax that would scare you into seeing what is like a human programming language) and accept mediocrity because evaluation and rank is more important than effort. I see it so often, even from students, I mess with them when they come to my office. I never bitched to change my grades. Why? I was busy reading. Who cares! Please keep being that professor, I hope you save some of them. What is the most cautionary part of that tale is the people in my story all end working for government, some as counter-terrorism and intel guys. They cannot string a sentence together in Arabic, despite the A, and dictate USG policy "on dem terrorist A-rabs" so this culture will get us a real far.