Word: flunk
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...course an out-of-hand determination that 10 1-2 men would get A's and the rest would flunk would be little better than assigning the specific marks to the individuals upon their enrollment in the course, but what many people seem to miss is the fact that the "distribution curve" system of marking, when properly applied, is a bet on the consistency of performance of a large group, the class, as against the consistency of performance of one man, the instructor. And that man's task is proverbially difficult, though it ranges in degree from a course...
When a professor decides before an examination what percentage of the class he will flunk, what percentage he will pass and what proportion of honor grades he will give, he lays himself open to a charge of gross injustice. To the student who dares complain he replies either that he is held down to the rules by a superior, or that he believes it the only satisfactory system. He can not, or will not, take into account the merit of the individual student. A man who writes an "A" paper thus receives a "B" simply because several other men wrote...
...remains for some enterprising "Widow" to supply radio outfits for the vest pocket with directions for tuning in. Then diddling with the dials will replace the anxious chewing pens, and static will be the only excuse for a "flunk...
...knowledge, but unless he can put that knowledge to work, he is still sadly lacking in true education. On the other hand, the man who has a fair estimate of the work required, and who has cultivated in addition the habit of using his head, will very rarely flunk out. What is even more, he will have acquired a power that the "parrot-student" can never know...
...large number of failures in a course should be looked upon as an indication that the instruction is faulty, rather than a boast that the course in laudably severe. The undergraduate is frequently of the opinion that his professors take a secret pride in the number of men they flunk. By convincing his students that they are being given a square deal the instructor will put himself in a better position to ask their cooperation...