Word: unfitting
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Thank God the American dream protects us from the status of incompetency before we have had the opportunity to be adequately evaluated (take note, professor who gave me that 69 percent). Labelling someone as fundamentally unfit suggests an inherent flaw--a permanent and incorrectable state rather than a temporary condition...
...normal humans, if any, are in fact fundamentally unfit. Rather, most of us saunter between states of competency and the incorrect degree of qualification. But most importantly, we are all qualified to some degree (even if it be the bare minimum) and have the ability and potential to further that qualification...
American higher education starkly reflects this unwillingness to seriously label anyone unfit. Costa Rica, my home country, is an extremely egalitarian society in which it is considered bad form to make anyone else look bad, or to try to make yourself look too good. But if you want to get into the University of Costa Rica your performance on a standardized admissions exam is the only factor determining your admission and your ability to enter the career of your choice. The idea that a university should employ a large number of admissions officers devoted to reading application essays and listening...
Much has been written lately about grade inflation in American colleges. I am uneasy addressing the topic, having benefited so abundantly from it. But there can be no doubt that this same unwillingness to label anyone as fundamentally unfit lies behind it. Intelligent students at the University of Costa Rica can hardly expect to go through college without failing a couple of courses, some of them two or three times in a row. A friend tells me of a math professor who gives no credit if a problem in a test has an incorrect answer. He then goes back...
...question remains whether it's a good policy for schools to identify certain students as unfit. Good arguments can be made both ways. There is no doubt that many bad students really are the victims of circumstance and that preserving their self-esteem may allow them to stay afloat. On the other hand, there is really no way to keep bad students from doing badly without lowering the standards and keeping the good students from developing their full potential. The record does not help much in settling the issue: The United States is the wealthiest country and its top universities...