Word: gould
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Last spring, Professor Stephen Jay Gould hired two seniors to lead sections in his overcrowded Core course, Science B-16, "The History of Life." Both of these students were responsible for leading discussions, grading homework, grading the 15 page term papers and participating in the collective grading of the final exam...
Referring to the situation in Gould's course, Wolcowitz writes, "[M]y sense is that, if the facts are as you state in the specific case you cite, it is the exception rather than the rule in the role that course assistants play." This parsed statement only underscores the fact that there is no rule at Harvard College regarding peer undergraduate grading. Despite what the EPC may have intended, section hiring is essentially left to the discretion of course heads...
...Gould's course last semester is the most glaring exception to the EPC recommendation, but in several other courses the use of undergraduates to help teach and grade has become an accepted practice. In General Education 156, "The Information Age, Its Main Currents and Their Intermingling," for example, Professor Anthony G. Oettinger employs an undergraduate to assist him and to provide feedback on response papers...
Professor Gould offered this reply to my questions concerning his course: "I had two undergraduate teaching fellows because that's what I had. If I could have had all graduate students, I would have." He concluded our conversation curtly: "Look, whatever the rules of the University are, I'm willing to follow them." I take this to mean two things: first, in hiring two seniors last semester as teaching fellows he was in compliance with the existing rules; second, if the rules were to change, he would follow them...
...moment we are all members of the same community. We have neither the qualifications, nor the depth of understanding in our field, nor the disinterestedness, nor the authority to formally judge or instruct one another. One example of the problems with this practice comes from a senior who took Gould's course last spring. Wishing to remain anonymous, he told me this about his section leader: "When she handed me back my paper, she said, `I don't know if this is an A or a C, so I gave...