If anything, the recent hubbub over grade inflation should tell you this: If you get below a B, you’re a lot dumber than you think.
But don’t worry; grade inflation is a wonderful thing. When more and more students get As and Bs, more graduate. If more students graduate, Temple will come across as a school that breeds successful students. And if this takes place in universities across the country, Americans in general will look like geniuses. If I were the president, I would encourage this sort of thing. Because if our children aren’t smart, then darn it, they should at least feel really good about themselves.
The grade inflation trend also rubs off in other aspects of our nation’s education system. Schools across the country are abolishing the tried and true honor roll. In Nashville, lawyers advised the school district to quit posting children’s names on the Principal’s List. Why? Because they are afraid the ones that don’t make honor roll will feel inferior. A Reader’s Digest article also recently mentioned the following examples: One high school quit listing their high scorers at basketball games, while one California college named as many as 100 valedictorians.
This promotion of non-competition, by the way, is an excellent idea. After all, when our children make it into the real world they won’t have to compete. So, let’s just take away any motivation for success, and place everybody on a level playing field. While we’re at it, let’s just switch to communism. After all, that’s what this is right? Everybody on a level playing field, feeling good about themselves, with no motivation to succeed. Forget the Cold War, disregard the “Miracle on Ice.” Actually, forget most of American foreign policy from about 1950 to1990. Everybody take you’re “A” grades, line up, and march.
America: Socialism with a smile.
In fact Temple should immediately adopt this policy, and switch our school color from cherry and white to red.
The Temple News reported that University President David Adamany recently told Temple’s Student Government that “Our goal is to provide an education at a reasonable cost to whoever wants it.” Although my fellow out-of-state tuition payers may disagree with what exactly is defined as a “reasonable cost,” grade inflation can make Adamany’s goals a reality. If everybody succeeds, everybody gets an education. If everybody receives the same watered-down education, everyone will graduate and land that dream job. We will just be a happy bunch and Temple will look like America’s premier university.
But is there anything discouraging a university from these practices? Are records kept on what happens to grads after they leave the university? Or are graduates just seen as GPAs? In the American collegiate system where prestige is half the battle, having an overload of 4.0 graduates may be beneficial to the university. While the education level of the students may suffer, the university will look ingenious. Every high school student will thumb through the latest issue of the Princeton Review and see Temple high on the list of quality graduates. It will be right next to the “most connected” list. As a result enrollment will go up, more tuition money will be collected, and maybe Johnson and Hardwick could finally get some air conditioning.
Sean Blanda can be reached at Sean.blanda@temple.edu.
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