Word: grades
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...illegal extension of federal powers into state and local territory. On the progressive side, minority Democrats have argued that such standards could damage the self-esteem of students. This last argument seems to be aimed mostly at Clinton's jabs against "social promotion," the practice of graduating students from grade to grade according to their age, even if they have not passed the required courses...
...Moore. "It so mattered. Every first grader had the latest on `Little House [on the Prairie]' except me. My vocabulary was behind everyone else's, and my teachers wondered if it was because I never watched TV. It made me feel weird; the last thing you want in first grade is to feel weird." An anonymous (afraid of being stigmatized?) Lowell House senior concurs. "When I was a little kid, [not watching television] was hard because that's the way to have some-thing in common with people," he says...
Some claim grade inflation is a problem because it makes fair evaluation impossible, lumping the truly great with the pretty good. But the truly great, if they live up to their name, surely do not rely on grades to make their case. It's true that if 80 percent of us receive As, the task of law school admissions officers will be more difficult. They might actually have to read carefully students' recommendations, essays and rosters of extracurricular involvements. They might even need to call in all applicants for interviews. But would that really...
Others claim grade inflation is a problem since it is the threat of low grades that keeps us working. But imagine that this recurrent threat is removed. Imagine a place where you were motivated to read for section not by fear of being called on but just by the desire to learn. Grade inflation alone will not take us to this more humane place, but it is a start. For the fact is--as most students can verify from experience--we enjoy classes more in which we do well. And when we enjoy a class, we are more prone...
...beautiful thing about grade inflation is that as grades keep getting higher and higher, closing in on that perfect top mark, their importance must diminish considerably. This greedy, average generation of which we are a part is gloriously shooting itself in the foot. Whether it is because we need good grades to get ahead and teachers are rightly hesitant to deny us, because inflation is somehow natural or because people in America today simply have no backbone, in the not-too-long run, the "problem" will take care of itself. We'll all have such high grades, or at least...