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Monday, March 30, 2020

Columbia U. Prof: Teachers Must Abandon ‘Preconceived Notions’ About How Grades Are Earned

A professor at Columbia University is calling on her fellow professors to give their students an “automatic A” for the spring 2020 semester due to the Wuhan coronavirus. According to professor Jenny Davidson, “it’s time to abandon our preconceived ideas about what needs to happen in a college class for a student to get credit for it.”

The professor made her case in an op-ed for the Washington Post, entitled, “Forget distance learning. Just give every college student an automatic A.”

“At the very least, the coronavirus means universities should switch to pass-fail and pass everyone,” wrote Davidson, adding that “it’s time to abandon our preconceived ideas about what needs to happen in a college class for a student to get credit for it.”

Davidson went on to claim that professors and students are just too “stressed,” adding that she hopes faculty and staff “won’t break under the huge additional workload entailed in moving courses online.”

“We’re now scrambling to transition everyone to remote learning on short notice,” said Davidson.

“We can also hope faculty and staff won’t break under the huge additional workload entailed in moving courses online that weren’t designed to be taught that way,” she added.

Additionally, to “ease stress on students,” the professor argues that colleges and universities should “strip down work expectations to the bare minimum,” and consider giving everyone A’s.

“Strip down work expectations to the bare minimum” wrote Davidson. “Introduce mandatory pass-fail at the very least — and consider giving enrolled students A grades as a default.”

“I wrote to both of my classes a week ago to say that I would give everyone an A based on the work they’d done already,” she added. “Regardless of what my university’s leadership ultimately decides about distance learning, I intend to do exactly that.”

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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

NO Handouts! If they don't do the work, they don't get the grade. Everyone repeats the course work.

Anonymous said...

School is CLOSED !! Get used to it , Just like Summer !!

Anonymous said...

Return their tuition for that quarter and make them retake it. NO HANDOUTS.

Anonymous said...

Wow the so called educators professors showing how stupid going through life clueless gets ya. Shows you the worth of their degrees

Anonymous said...

Hey, the students aren't the bad guys here. These universities overcharge in the first place. The professors mostly are arrogant asses with no real teaching skills, and wouldn't last a semester in public school. They get a degree and go straight to a cushy university job, where they have unbelievable freedom to teach as they please. Hence all the leftist indoctrination. So if I'm paying 5 grand per semester you better damn sight figure out a way to get my kid thru this.

Anonymous said...

You should get O. Not an A. O for non participation.

Anonymous said...

Most professors make little more than public school teachers, stop repeating inane talking points that do no help higher education reform

Anonymous said...

That's it... Give it to them who aren't smart enough to earn it on their own. That'll help prepare them for life in general. Cell phone & computer, that's all they'll ever need.

The stupid one is the teacher who thinks they're prepared to take on the problems of life and the results when they're awakened to incompetence.

God help us all.

Anonymous said...

This is what they want. Equal outcome. Not equal opportunity.

Why work when there is no incentive to do so? Thank god for Trump right now.

Anonymous said...

That"s right dumb them down and then they will be just as academically worthless as they were when they were passed along in high school. Leaders of tomorrow, I seriously doubt it. Look at the dumb bell mayors in Baltimore and New Orleans. They don't accept the responsibilities of their office, just blame the President. Ignorant, biased and just plain worthless.