Virus ‘Stress’ Prompts Students to Demand Easy A’s at Harvard
By David Randall April 2, 2020
America’s students will get a lot of pass/fail grades during the coronavirus pandemic. The University of Pennsylvania, Lehigh University, and Haverford College have allowed students to choose whether to be graded pass/fail for classes this semester. Duke University announced, “all spring courses at the university will default to a satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade scheme.†The Massachusetts Institute of Technology will require students to take their classes pass/fail. More than 500 Harvard students have signed a petition by Harvard for All calling for all grades to be either A or A-minus.
That might be reasonable if the colleges had good reasons, such as the difficulty for colleges to set up distance learning, or for colleges to learn how to use distance learning software. All too often, they cite bad reasons instead. Administrators express concern, and students complain about stress and equity. Grades cause students stress. Some students don’t have perfect access to computers, so no student should be graded. Our snowflakes and our social justice warriors, heavily overlapping categories, naturally want to eliminate all grades.
https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2020/04/02/virus-stress-prompts-students-to-demand-easy-as-at-harvard/
